[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Nuyt, consider these points please..
1. The file shows that shipments to the UK and N Africa commenced early July 1940 and took some months to be completed. In that time the Royal Navy could have and would have seized all shipments, which appear to have been in Dutch or Belgian ships as well judging by names, and diverted them to British ports. That would have caused an enormous outcry of course, given the animosity that had was building up steam amongst the French in Britain, but Churchill would have dismissed the furore. I have to add here that these contracts amounted to millions of dollars [I have seen some figures in the files] for which the Republic de France paid. The Assignment also included Curtiss P.40 Warhawk aircraft, plus Brewster Buffalos and probably some others I cannot recall. In addition French financing of the Alison engine project and Detroit-Diesel engines for tanks was also transferred, so the agreement was alot larger than might first meet the eye.
2. De Gaulle believed that he and his cohorts were the legitimate French government-in-exile and French assets in the UK were accounted to them by the British, A famous example is those British-gauge Wagons-Lits railway cars that had been stranded in England, and when the British Army used them in Kent a rent had to be paid to the De Gaulle administration. Whether you consider De Gaulle's assumption in such circumstances 'piracy' is open to individual sentiments.
3. The Assignment was recognised as legitimate by the US and Canadian Governments. Let us be honest here and say that the USG especially stood to gain as these contracts could have been cancelled and the momentum that was gained by military production was then carried-over to USG contracts. The files makes it clear that cancellation was an option and was sparingly carried out.