{"record":{"aliases":[],"appointmentIds":["france-c4b79bcfb259fe"],"appointmentsDataset":"https://chanceries.org/diplomats.json","archivalSources":[],"canonicalUrl":"https://chanceries.org/diplopedia/people/henry-berenger-ee3dc9bd8a/","countrySlug":"france","entityId":"https://chanceries.org/diplopedia/people/henry-berenger-ee3dc9bd8a/#person","eventIds":[],"expandedParagraphs":["Henry Bérenger was a writer, newspaper editor, and senator before becoming an ambassador. Born in 1867, he published poetry and political studies and directed Le Siècle and Paris-Midi. Elected senator for Guadeloupe in 1912, he worked on military and financial legislation. During and after the First World War, his responsibilities for fuel supply led him to develop a sustained interest in petroleum policy.","War debts brought him to Washington. He joined Joseph Caillaux's parliamentary mission in 1925, then returned as ambassador and negotiated the agreement known as the Mellon–Bérenger settlement. Reached on 29 April 1926, it provided a 62 year payment schedule for France's debt, with principal and accumulated interest of about $4.025 billion and further interest bringing the scheduled total to about $6.848 billion. The agreement required governmental ratification; signing it did not end the political dispute over repayment.","Back in parliamentary diplomacy, Bérenger chaired the Senate's foreign affairs commission and represented France at the League of Nations. In 1938 he led the French delegation to the Évian refugee conference. In a preparatory conversation with Myron Taylor, he promised to coordinate the French and American positions. The conference nevertheless produced little expansion of asylum: most participating governments refused to admit substantially more refugees fleeing Nazi persecution.","He did not attend the National Assembly proceedings that granted Pétain constitutional powers on 10 July 1940. He subsequently withdrew from political life to Saint-Raphaël, where he died in 1952. He also wrote on finance, petroleum, and diplomacy."],"id":"france:henry berenger","identifiers":{},"legacyPersonIds":[],"legacyUrl":"https://chanceries.org/diplomat-ee3dc9bd8a92ef8d2d13.html","name":"Henry Bérenger","notes":[],"paragraphSources":[["src-8e76cfcea4a3646a"],["src-0f15403556cec620","src-414d40a09aaca093"],["src-8e76cfcea4a3646a","src-162b6593b9f57d55","src-50799c244340398d"],["src-8e76cfcea4a3646a"]],"profileUrl":"diplomat-ee3dc9bd8a92ef8d2d13.html","relatedEvents":[],"relatedPeople":[],"relationships":[],"researchStatus":"reviewed","reviewedOn":"2026-10-28","revision":"d43ae0a02bfa7c39","sources":[{"accessedOn":"2026-10-28","date":null,"id":"src-8e76cfcea4a3646a","locator":"Biographies 1889–1940 and 1940–1958","publisher":"Sénat","title":"Henry Bérenger","type":"official-biography","url":"https://www.senat.fr/senateur-3eme-republique/berenger_henry0845r3.html"},{"accessedOn":"2026-10-28","date":"1925-09-16","id":"src-0f15403556cec620","locator":"FRUS 1925, vol. I, document 98","publisher":"U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian","title":"The French Ambassador (Daeschner) to the Secretary of State","type":"primary-record","url":"https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1925v01/d98"},{"accessedOn":"2026-10-28","date":"1926-06-01","id":"src-414d40a09aaca093","locator":"P. 3, French Debt Agreement","publisher":"Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Monthly Review","title":"The French Debt Agreement","type":"contemporary-report","url":"https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/frbnyreview/rev_frbny_19260601.pdf"},{"accessedOn":"2026-10-28","date":"1938-06-27","id":"src-162b6593b9f57d55","locator":"FRUS 1938, vol. I, document 728","publisher":"U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian","title":"The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State, relaying Myron Taylor","type":"primary-record","url":"https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1938v01/d728"},{"accessedOn":"2026-10-28","date":"2022-04-28","id":"src-50799c244340398d","locator":"Conference discussion and refugee admissions","publisher":"United States Holocaust Memorial Museum","title":"Emigration and the Evian Conference","type":"institutional-history","url":"https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/emigration-and-the-evian-conference"},{"accessedOn":"","date":"2014-09-03; page report date; contains 2014-09-18 entry; accessed 20 October 2026","id":"mission-c0a410adaf2688f3b956","locator":"Complete published ambassador sequence from 1893 through Gérard Araud; separate Appt. and Amb. E. and P. dates; 1942 relations break and 1944 resumption","publisher":"","title":"Diplomatic Representation for French Republic","type":"Mission record","url":"https://2009-2017.state.gov/s/cpr/rls/95681.htm"},{"accessedOn":"","date":"","id":"mission-95150552850f3c521130","locator":"","publisher":"","title":"Henry Bérenger — mission record (1926–1927)","type":"Mission record","url":"https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1926v02/d62"}],"topics":["War debts","Petroleum policy","French Senate","League of Nations","Évian Conference","Refugees"]},"schemaVersion":1}