GERMANY'S BAIT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 287, 4 December 1941, Page 8

GERMANY'S BAIT

II |§ FOR FRENCH FLEET SSI - || Free Hand Sought In || Colonies • United Press Association.—Capyrlgtot. II Rec. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 3. $ As a: bait to secure control of the ® French Fleet and the colonies Ger- & many has offered big concessions » to Vichy, says the Daily Express, iv The offer may prove too tempting for M Petain to resist. M Reports from Axis sources reaching Stockholm say Germany has m offered (1), to release all French >■§ prisoners of war, an act for which the Na«is know millions of wives rf and mothers in France would sacri- ;££- fice anything; (2), to allow Petain to j; regain full authority over the whole % of France (the Vichy Government v would then return to Paris); (3), to ;>£: evacuate all of France except Alsace, 'If Lorraine and several other strategic points; (47, to reduce the cost of Gerf man occupation from £1,800,000 H daily to £300,000. f, In exchange, the Germans are re- ; « ported to have asked for the entire French Fleet to be handed over to Germany, and for Germany to be given a free hand in all French M colonies.