At this afternoon's meeting the Cabinet were informed by General
de Gaulle, French Under Secretary of State for War, that a
'psychological stroke' alone would restrain M. Reynaud [2] from
asking for an Armistice. A document was produced which had been
prepared in London today by de Gaulle in consultation with certain
British and French officials with this object in view. This
document was considered by the Cabinet and substantially amended
by them. In its amended version it was read over the telephone by
de Gaulle to M. Reynaud who is understood to have indicated that
it met with his approval.

Text of the document as revised by the Cabinet is as follows-
(begins)
At this most fateful moment in the history of the modern world,
the Governments of the United Kingdom and the French Republic make
this declaration of indissoluble union and unyielding resolution
in their common defence of justice and freedom against subjection
to a system which reduces mankind to robots and slaves.

The two Governments declare that France and Great Britain shall no
longer be two nations but one Franco-British Union.

The constitutional Union will provide for joint organs of Defence,
Foreign, Financial and Economic policies.

Every citizen of France will enjoy immediate citizenship of Great
Britain: every British subject will become a citizen of France.

Both countries will share the responsibility for the repair of the
devastation of war wherever it occurs in their territories and the
resources of both shall be equally and as one applied to that
purpose.

During the war there shall be a single War Cabinet and all the
forces of Great Britain and France, whether on land, sea or in the
air, shall be placed under its direction. It will govern from
wherever it best can. The two Parliaments will be formally
associated.

The nations of the British Empire are already forming new Armies.

France will keep her available forces in the field, on sea and in
the air. The Union appeals to the United States to fortify the
economic resources of the Allies and to bring her powerful
material aid to the common cause.

The Union will concentrate its whole energy against the power of
the enemy, no matter where the battle may be. And thus we shall
conquer.

(ends).

The Prime Minister [3] and other Ministers are leaving for France
tonight in order to ascertain whether the adoption of this
document by the British and French Governments and its immediate
publication would secure the abandonment by the French Government
of their proposal to enquire as to the conditions under which the
Axis Powers would grant France an Armistice. If the document does
not have this effect, the reply to the French Government set out
at the end of my telegram Circular Z. 114 [4] which has meanwhile
been suspended would apply.

Nothing but the extreme situation and the hope that the adoption
of this document may avert the collapse of the French resistance
would have led His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom to
take this course without the fullest prior consultation with the
Dominion Governments, but events have left us no option. We can
therefore only take this earliest opportunity of informing you of
the basis on which the Prime Minister's discussions in France
tomorrow will take place. [5]