BREACH REPORTED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 69, 2 January 1941, Page 6

BREACH REPORTED

VICHY-GERMAN NEGOTIATIONS.

REMOVAL OF FRENCH FLEET.

ANTICIPATION OF ULTIMATUM

(United Press Association—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 11.20 a.m.)

LONDON, January 1.

It is reported, without confirmation, from Lisbon that negotiations between the Vichy Government and Germany have been broken off.

The Lisbon correspondent of the “Daily' Express” says t\hat Marshal Petain is moving the French navy unit by unit to African ports in preparation for any sudden ultimatum from Hitler. "When Marshal Petain recently visited Toulon he found the Strasbourg lying in the harbour. Also 12 destroyers and torpedo-boats. Only the Strasbourg and two destroyers are there to-dav.

HUNGER FACES FRANCE.

MARSHAL PETAIN’S PREDICTION

PEASANTS AND PRODUCTION

(Received This Day, €1.35 a.m.) LONDON, January 1

In a New Year’s Eve broadcast Marshal Petain said: 1941 must be France’s year of resurrection. We shall have hunger because the war has robbed us of a great part of our crops, and the blockade is depriving us of overseas supplies of food, which before the war amounted to 6,000,000 tons annually. I appeal to French ingenuity to improvise means of making up the losses. The peasants must drag from the soil everything it contains. The workers’ lot will be hard. Stocks of raw materials are dwindling, and some industries are in danger of coming to a complete standstill. I. promise to recognise neither party nor class. I appeal to you to get out of social grooves, ruts and prejudices and to discard rancour and mistrust.