PRESSURE ON VICHY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 250, 4 August 1941, Page 5

PRESSURE ON VICHY.

POSSIBLE COUP D’ETAT.

REPORTS OF GERMAN INTENTION

(United Press Association—Copyright.) LONDON, August 2.

In spito of a campaign in the Paris press for closer collaboration with Germany, it is reported that the Vichy Government lias decided to take its own decision regardless of pressure, says the Vichy correspondent the Associated Press of Great Britain. Marshal Petain is believed to have explained the .situation to the Cabinet, declaring that Vicliy should stay within the existing collahoraton " agreements. Political circles express tho opinion that -.nothing unusual is likely to happen at present. . Reports are circulating in Vicny of a possible coup d’etat, supported by Hitler against the Petain Government. According to the Vichy correspondent of the British United Pi-ess, General Deloncle, leader of the Cagoullarcls, is reported to bo raising a legion, not to fight against the Russians, as is supposed, but to oust the Government. The foreign editor of the “Daily Express’’ suggests that Hitler is plotting a French revolt in a supreme effort to force the whole French nation, the Fleet and the Empire, into tho war on the Germans’ side.

A large number of Communists have been arrested in Paris and Nantes and surrounding districts. The enemies of Germany are being encouraged to show their intentions so that they can he eliminated.

The degree of control exercised by the Nazis over the foreign policy of the Vichy Government is shown by a scrutiny of documents found among thfc archives of the High Command for Syria by Free French forces. They also indicate the close collaboration which exists between Japan and Germany. A report on January 15 states: “Reinforcements of b-otli men and material granted by the German and Italian Armistice Commission have been sent or are being sent chiefly to French West Africa. On the other hand, the German Commission still refuses, to allow reinforcements of men and material for tho defence of Indo-China. New procedures, are in process to attenuate such rigour.”

On February 15 another report read as follows: “The German Commission has informed us of its final decision to forbid all reinforcements to Indo-China of men and material, whether from France or Madagascar,” Under the heading “Air Force Terms’t is the following: “The German Commission has refused all reinforcement of defence forces in Indo-China. This refusal applies in particular to the sending to this colony of American-built planes on hoard the- aircraft-carrier Bearn, at present immobilised at Martinique.”

WARNING BY AMERICA. THE POSITION IN INDO-CHINA. • WASHINGTON, August 2. The failure of France to resist Japanese aggression in Indo-China menaced American security, saifcl the Under-Secretary for State (Mr Sumner Welles) in a. statement assailing the French collaboration with the Axis. The Vichy Government had given repeated assurances to the United States that it would not co-operate with the Axis beyond the armistice obligations, and would defend territories under its control against any aggression on the part of third Powers. The United States had now received information on the terms of the agreement covering the so-called common defence of French showing that Vichy had virtually transferred that part of the French Empire to Japan. The United States therefore warned Vichy that future American relations with France would he guided liy the degree of effectiveness with which France defended its territories against Axis aggression.