Henry Bérenger

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. ¹

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. ^{2, 3}

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. ^{1, 4, 5}

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. ¹