DE GAULLE (General) and KOENIG (General) - Lot 42

DE GAULLE (General) and KOENIG (General) Set of a telegram from General de Gaulle to General Koenig dated September 20, 1945, together with the autograph text of the reply telegram signed by General Koenig dated September 21, 1945. One folio and 2 1/2 pages. Nice set concerning the management of the French Occupation Zone in Germany: Secret telegram, form n°6, normal priority. 20-9-45 at 10:30 a.m. Addressees: Fidélité Origin: Innovative CAB/68. From GENERAL DE GAULLE to GENERAL KOENIG. PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL "You are wasting your time. Your local administration is not yet in place everywhere. We're dragging our feet and procrastinating when it comes to assigning people to their posts. There's a lot of arguing to get all the undesirables out. Don't fall into the classic error of trying to govern with your cabinet. A cabinet is nothing. You only govern with your department heads. Don't forget that the Berlin affair has become almost incidental, and that the whole point is to administer our zone properly. Signed: GENERAL DE GAULLE". Cipher note: This telegram was deciphered and typed by Captain Jacquelin, Head of the Cipher Department. Telegram stamped by the Cipher Officer who added the handwritten note "No draft or duplicate is kept". Handwritten reply from Koenig: "Personal and confidential. 21.9.45. Reply to our n° CAB/68 1. I don't know which malicious ignoramus or imbecile gave you the information. 2. The local administration is in place everywhere stop certain posts are insufficiently filled in number and quality stop the government bodies have in fact shown themselves incapable of selecting for eight months the personnel that the ministries should have supplied for our various organizations in Germany. 3. I'd be happy to know whose names are being withheld for stop assignments. Those of GRANVAL, WIDMER and KELLER were made as early as September 1, i.e. much faster than expected and even more abruptly. 4. Instead of reproaching me for my slowness in sending away undesirables, it would have been a thousand times better not to send here not only undesirables, but also incompetents or tired people stop Having said that, I have already dismissed 50 officers or assimilated, and that's still going on stop The small staff are taking capacity tests again. 5. My cabinet is in fact a special staff or general secretariat stop I've done this to save on personnel, and the name doesn't matter stop But I need a working body at my complete disposal, straddling both Berlin and the zone, and the Administration and the Army stop It wasn't me who signed the agreements settling the Berlin scenario, but your own government stop I'm the first to say so, and I'm not the only one. I am the first to suffer the practical consequences. 6. I believe I administer the French zone and have it administered "as it should be" stop If you don't feel that way, there's an easy way to have it administered better stop For my part, I've never given credence to off-the-record gossip stop I'll be in Paris on Monday and I've had the honor of asking for an audience with you before the government council meeting signed by KOENIG." (traces of rust on a paperclip) Provenance: General Pierre Koenig, Marshal of France and Companion of the Liberation, then by descent.