FRANCE AND THE BLOCKADE

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23204, 16 December 1940, Page 7

FRANCE AND THE BLOCKADE

PETAIN’S ORDER TO

NAVY

NEW YORK, December 13. The decision of the Petain Government to order the French Navy to convoy French merchantmen carrying raw materials and food to Marseilles and other French ports has seriously strained relations between France and Britain, states the Lisbon correspondent of the “New York Times.” It is learned on unimpeachable authority that the French have been breaking the British blockade in this manner for several weeks. A considerable quantity of food has been conveyed from Algiers and several convoys have not been molested when passing Gibraltar. The quantity of raw materials taken to France in this way is not sufficiently large as yet to suggest that the French' arc gathering materials for the Germans, but Britain’s fear that it may be the beginning of an important traffic is compelling her to lake action to prevent riddling of the blockade. It is understqod that Mr Churchill fears that interference with French convoys may force France into war with Britain. France insists that she is only carrying food for her own existence. The establishment by the Germans of a second and third line of air bases deep in France and some in unoccuEied France may cause the British to omb that area even at the risk- of bringing France into the war.