VICHY ACCEPTS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 182, 16 May 1941, Page 5

VICHY ACCEPTS

THE PROPOSALS BY GERMANY.

USE OF SYRIA LIKELY.

BRITAIN’S DECLARATION HOLDS

(United Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, May 15. Agency messages suggest that a statement on collaboration between France and Germany may.be published to-day in Berlin. This follow’s the official announcement from Vichy yesterday that the French Cabinet had unanimously apfprovecl Herr Hitler’s requirements in return for recent concessions to Vichy. The effect of the negotiations, it was said, would make themselves felt soon.

"What the Gorman requirements are is not known, but it is generally taken for granted that Germany has asked for a great deal more than she is prepared to give in return. Commentators consider that the most immediate German demand is for the use of Syria as a base of operations. Mr Raymond Gram Swing, the wellknown American commentator, declares that transit through Syria toward Egypt and the Suez is Germany’s most urgent need at present. Tho “Daily Telegraph” says : “There is reason to believe that the meeting of the French Cabinet at which Admiral Darlan’s negotiations with Hitler wero approved concerned the situation in Syria. Hitler is reported to have sent for Admiral Dnrlan in order to demand assurances that if Germans landed in Syria by air the French garrison would bo withdrawn or refrain from intervening. Hitler’s Procedure. “When Hitler sends for a foreign statesman to hand him an ultimatum he usually acts as though the terms are already fulfilled. Consequently, one may expect to hear at any moment, that Genii an planes carrying troops and material have actually ■ landed at Aleppo. Tho possibility of landings from the sea must also he considered.

“The. official report after the . meeting of tho Cabinet in Vichy is merely a smoke screen, maintaining the pretence that Admiral Darlan’s visit was intended to conclude economic negotiations which are already concluded.

“Britain is bound by her declaration of July, 1940, that she ‘could not allow' Syria to be occupied by a hostile Power or used as .a base for attacks on other countries in the Middle East.’ It is believed the. implications of this declaration are now under discussion witli Vichy in London and Washington.” '

The official news agency in Vichy announced that two German planes landed at an aerodrome in the region of Mosul. It was not known whether they are civil «r military machines, and for this reason it is unwise to deduce that, this is a start of military aid for Iraq. The Vichy correspondent of the Associated Press says that the decision of Cabinet will prove a fateful act. Details of Hitler’s terms are still nnvevcalod, but some are of opinion that these amount to co-operation with the Axis in a plan designed to keep the United States.out of the war. Comment by Mr Eden. Questioned in the House of Commons regarding the French Government’s policy the. Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Mr R. A. Eden) answered : “The policy which has been adopted and declared by France is collaboration with Germany within certain limits which has not, so far as I am aware, been clearly defined. The agreement with Germany signed on May 5, provides, according to the official announcement issued at Vichy, for alleviation of tho restrictive measures regarding the line of demarcation between occupied and unoccupied France and for reduction of the costs of occupation from 400,000,000 to 300,000,000 francs daily. The lino of demarcation would, according to the communique, bo open generally for the passage of goods between two zones and also for persons in. case of serious illness of. near relatives. The despatch of plain postcards from one zone to another would also bo authorised and soldiers and airmen would be allowed to pass from one zone, to the other under the conditions which, have hitherto applied to sailors only. '

“No official announcement has been made regarding what may have been conceded by France in return for these so-called concessions but the agreement is described by Vichy as a new step along the path of collaboration,” said Mr. Eden. “Whatever concessions Admiral .-Darien (Vice-Premier and Foreign Minister) may have agreed to, I find it hard to believe the French people, helpless though they may be to prevent systematic spoliation of their resources by the Germans will be so false to their noble traditions as to work actively, of their own freci will, for the German cause and thus prolong the period of their own sufferings and postpone the day of their own liberation.” —British' Official Wireless.