The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. FRIDAY, JULY 5, 1940. BRITAIN ACTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 158, 5 July 1940, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

FRIDAY, JULY 5, 1940. BRITAIN ACTS.

J*or f fc« cause that lack* aecMfonoe, For the trrong that needs resietanom. For the future in the distance, And the good that tee can do.

Never in our worst imaginings of this war have we dreamed it possible that Englishmen would be righting Frenchmen. Thai it has happened is an appalling thought—even though it had to happen. The two nations fought together through the la~t war, to victor} , ; and it had been our faith that we would do so again and that this time they would make their victory secure. To that faith the achievements of the French Navy in the last ten months had powerfully contributed. It was a strong and fine Navy, well fitted to protect its country and to maintain communications with the far-flung French Empire. It had, as well, co-operated in many waters and many ways with the British Navy. It helped in the escorting of the British Expeditionary Force to France, and it fought most gallantly to protect the same force a$ it was withdrawn from Dunkirk. It helped, too, to escort the First Echelon in safety to Egypt. These facts we remember in gTatitude, and we should never forget them, even though a fell conspiracy of enemy and traitors and circumstance has resulted in French naval guns being turned against British, and British against French.

The mystifying silence which has hung over the French Navy since the Bordeaux Government capitulated to Hitler is now ended, and explained. In the intervening time, it seems clear, there has been a diplomatic tug-of-war between Britain and Hitler's puppet Government at Bordeaux. The one has been appealing in the name of comradeship' and good faith to the commanders of French naval units not to allow themselves to be used against their Ally; the other, under the threats and kicks of Berlin, has been endeavouring to make the same commanders obey its orders —orders issued under an authority acquired in unexplained and dubious circumstances. The tug-of-war, it is consoling to think, was- ended in Britain's favour in all ports except two. The French cemmanders and their crews in those ports, we do well to realise, had to make a choice that was agonisingly hard. According to one report, they must have been oppressed by the Nazi threat, characteristically vile, that if they did not surrender themselves and their ships to the enemy their families in France would suffer. How different is the offer of the British Government to those of them that did not yield to these threats. If they wish to become British subjects, they will be welcomed; if not, they may return to France. The larger part of the French fleet is now under British control because of persuasions directed to the finer impulses of men, which triumphed over the most base of threats.

Hard as was the choice which had to be made by the Frenchmen, a harder one had to be made in London. If persuasion failed, what was to be done? There could be only one decision by the Government of a nation which late, but not too late, has turned its back on "appeasement." War is not a game. This war, now, is for the life or death of Britain. These French ships are instruments of war which Hitler and Mussolini hoped to gain for the destruction of Britain. That scheme had to be .frustrated at all costs. That it could be frustrated only by firing on the noble ships of the French Navy is a grievous misfortune, but it has been frustrated.

Though we may not regard the action off Oran a≤ a victory, fit cause of exultation, we have cause to be encouraged and stimulated by the evidence it affords of the firmness of will and the capaeity for swift decision of the British Government. Too often in this war, until the advent of Mr. Churchill, has "too late" been the proper comment upon its decisions. Its capacity for retrospective explanation has exceeded its prevision. But now all that has changed. The British Commonwealth, at long last, has leadership worthy of its people. Under the threat of a deadly danger the Government is doing all things that seem to it necessary, without consideration for sectional or individual interests. It acta in the confidence that the people will , support it. And —it is not surprising — the people do support it. The tremendous ovation given Mr. Churchill in the House of Commons did not arise from exultation over an action which was a bitter necessity, but from gratitude to and pride in a leader who has the gifts and the will to be a leader in this great hour of Britain's history. And the comment from the United States indicates that it is not in British countries alone that actions speak louder than "words.