GERMANY AND FRANCE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 81, 6 April 1943, Page 2

GERMANY AND FRANCE

THE "transfer" to Germany of MM. Daladier, Blum, Reynaud and Mandel, and Marshal Gamelin, has been made, according to the Berlin radio, to forestall a British-American coup. Coming from a German source, this explanation must be suspect. However, the most interesting feature of the Germans' action is the implication that these former leaders of. France still have political influence sufficient to make them dangerous. After the fall of France their prestige fell very low, and they would not then have been thought dangerous. Curiously enough, it was their trial, begun by the Vichy Government, probably at Hitler's behest, which did more than anything else to restore their prestige. The trial did not follow the course that the Germans hoped for; on the contrary, the spirit and. forensic skill of the accused were such that their accusers presently appeared in a peculiarly unfavourable light. In consequence, the trial was abandoned. Since then, much has happened in France. The country being now fully occupied, the French people have nothing to hope for except an Allied landing, and it seems that more and more of them are hoping for that. Possibly the. Germans' action was impelled by the fear that one or more of the former French leaders might escape to Britain or North Africa, although if any of them did it is doubtful if he would exercise influence comparable with that of General Giraud. Whatever the explanation, the happening furnishes a gratifying indication of German nervousness, although gratification should not blind us to the fact that it indicates, also, German alertness and determination. •