Telegram from Field Marshal Jan Smuts [Prime Minister of South Africa] to WSC marked "most secret and personal" reporting the decisions reached regarding Madagascar at a conference in Pretoria [South Africa] attended by Lieutenant- General Sir William Platt [General Officer Commanding- in-Chief, East African Command], Major-General Robert Sturges [Officer commanding land forces in Madagascar], Vice-Admiral Algernon Willis [Commander-in-Chief, South Atlantic Station], 4th Lord Harlech [earlier William Ormsby-Gore, High Commissioner for Britain in South Africa] and Smuts: reports that it was agreed to continue with the attempt at negotiations with the French authorities but comments on military action should these fail.