René de Saint-Quentin

René Doynel de Saint-Quentin was born in 1883 and entered the diplomatic service in 1907 after studying at the École libre des sciences politiques. His early assignments included London, Berlin, and Morocco. Twice wounded during the First World War, he later worked on North African and Levantine affairs. An intended ambassadorship in Rome foundered over France's refusal to recognize Italy's conquest of Ethiopia. ^{1, 2}

Appointed to Washington in 1938, Saint-Quentin sought American support as European war approached. He advocated changes to American neutrality legislation, but French appeals for direct military intervention in May and June 1940 did not succeed. After France's armistice, he remained in office under Vichy and helped negotiate arrangements concerning French warships in the Caribbean, a dispute that threatened relations with Washington. ²

His work also extended to East Asia. On 27 June 1940 he described Japanese pressure on French Indochina to Under Secretary Sumner Welles and asked about American protection for French positions in Shanghai. Welles declined to promise that American forces would oppose Japan. ³

Replaced in Washington in 1940, he subsequently became ambassador in Rio de Janeiro. In 1943 he broke with Vichy and joined the French authorities in Algiers before retiring in 1944. He later chaired the Association Valentin Haüy, which supports blind and visually impaired people, from 1946 until his death in 1961. ^{2, 1}