Cablegram 473 9 September 1940,
Your telegrams 326 [1] and 328 [2]:
1. Concur in proposal that Sautot [3] be appointed by De Gaulle [4] as Governor New Caledonia.
2. Am arranging Sautot be conveyed to Noumea in S.S. NORDEN, Norwegian tanker now at Port Vila. H.M.A.S. ADELAIDE will accompany NORDEN.
3. Commonwealth Government will support British Government in economic measures in New Caledonia and Western Pacific in conformity with terms set out generally in Prime Minister’s [5] letter to General De Gaulle of August 27 and quoted in your cable 316. [6]
4. Commonwealth Government has agreed to request of High Commissioner for Western Pacific [7] that certain anti-De Gaulle persons at Vila should be deported via Australia and that provided situation at Noumea is then stable H.M.A.S. ADELAIDE should be at Vila on 16th September when S.S. MORINDA will visit Vila and deportees will presumably be embarked. [8]
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1 Document 105.
2 Dispatched 6 September. See file AA:A981, New Caledonia 37.
3 French Resident Commissioner in the New Hebrides.
4 Leader of the Free French movement.
5 Winston S. Churchill.
6 Dispatched 2 September. See file AA:A981, New Caledonia 37.
7 Sir Harry Luke.
8 Copies of this cablegram were repeated to Peter Fraser, N.Z.
Prime Minister; to Luke; to R. D. Blandy, U.K. Resident Commissioner in the New Hebrides; and to B. C. Ballard, Official Representative in New Caledonia. In each case they included an additional paragraph reading: ‘This telegram covers matters on which you require urgent advice. Necessary instructions are being given Commanding Officer H.M.A.S. ADELAIDE and Captain of NORDEN.
Please advise Sautot.’
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[AA: A981, NEW CALEDONIA 37]