General de Gaulle's Refusal
General de Gaulle's refusal to go to Algiers to meet President Roosevelt has met with a good deal of just criticism in the Paris Press. It is the more regrettable because it was important that the French view about the Yalta decisions should be heard authoritatively at a high level before the time comes to implement them. One can understand the French feelng that General de Gaulle should have been invited to attend the meeting of the Big Three in the Crimea; without admitting that a lealistic appreciation of the military position in Europe demanded his pr sence there. But in proportki as it was desirable that French vi ould be authoritatively s ted to the other Allied leaders, in that degree i 'ously esse ial that
the Head of the French Government should miss rtunity
of a personal discussion with President Roosevelt. The latter, though unable to go to Paris, did, in fact, suggest meeting General de Gaulle on French soil, namely, at Algiers. We do not feel affronted in Britain because Mr. Roosevelt has not visited London, nor has Mr. Churchill spared himself in flying repeatedly from one part of the world to another to meet the President or Marshal Stalin. No doubt when General de Gaulle declined the invitation it was not because he wished to stand on ceremony, but to assert the principle of the equality of France among the greater Allies. The incident ought not to be magnified. At the same time it was manifestly a gross error of judgement, and Americans are fully justified in regard- ing General de Gaulle's attitude as a singular return for what America has done to liberate France and is doing today to help France economically.
