The Triangle

Among other things, a question of money last week disturbed Charles de Gaulle's always tempestuous relations with Washington and London.

The Allied Command had taken "military money" into France--franc notes backed by nothing except the noncommittal printing on the currency (TIME, June 19). But to the Gaullists, the main issue was not the currency itself, however dubious its worth. It was simply that no U.S. or British authority had any business floating currency in France. That, said the Gaullists, was solely the function of Frenchmen. When the Allied command supplied its soldiers with non-French "francs," the whole principle of French sovereignty was imperiled.

Three Players. In the ensuing uproar, the triangular state of U.S.-British-Gaul-list relations became more apparent than ever. London newsmen heard that Winston Churchill was astounded when he heard of the arrangement for fiat invasion currency, was far from satisfied with the explanations given him. President Roosevelt indirectly confirmed the impression that the U.S. had fathered the plan. He said that the Gaullists knew about it all along. He added that they had not approved the plan, but had not rejected it, either. Evidently, in this as in other aspects of the French imbroglio, Britain had reluctantly followed the U.S. lead while the French stood off in a corner.

Growing awareness of this fact made the British more & more uncomfortable. The House of Commons impatiently demanded a debate on French policy, forced Winston Churchill to put the blame on his great friend in Washington. Said Churchill: "We have to consider our very close relations with the United States and its relations with the French body."

Double Play? General de Gaulle had antagonized practically everybody, including some of his own associates, with his arbitrary behavior in London. But his posturings and demands had not improved the U.S. position. Said the shrewd London Economist: ". . . allowing for the worst the President can suspect, the present American attitude is calculated to bring about exactly those dangers which it is designed to prevent."

At week's end, Charles de Gaulle flew back to Algiers. He and his associates seemed pleased with themselves, talked confidently of impending gains for the Gaullists. London expected negotiations to begin immediately between the British Government and the Gaullist Government for some new and broadened form of recognition.* Out of all this loomed a possible solution: Britain would give De Gaulle's Government the kind of realistic recognition it wanted; the U.S. would then accept an accomplished fact and climb aboard the bandwagon.

* Last week the governments of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Yugoslavia recognized the French Liberation Committee as a Provisional Government. This recognition gave General de Gaulle one more argument in his ceaseless demand for complete Big Power recognition

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