FREE FRENCH MOVEMENT

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23263, 25 February 1941, Page 4

FREE FRENCH MOVEMENT

Plan For Wide Establishment ACTION IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND Advice of the steps to be taken to establish the Free French movement on a constituted basis throughout Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific has been received by Mr Henri Plat, who was recently appointed representative in New Zealand of M. Andre Brenac, leader of the movement in Australia. A move is being made to set up committees in the four main centres in New Zealand, with possibility of extending activity tc other parts .of the Dominion later. It is intended to set up a central committee representing the whole of New Zealand and the mandated territory controlled by the Dominion. This committee will be represented on the central committee in Sydney, which will also have a representative from each of the states in Australia. At present there is a provisional committee in Christchurch, the first to be established in New Zealand. The secretary is Mr M. G. Turner, and those interested are asked to address Inquiries to him, the postal address, “Free French Movement, Christchurch," being sufficient. A meeting is to be held in Sydney on March 6 to constitute the movement. The proposed cbnstitution, which has been drawn under legal advice in Sydney, is now in the hands of the provisional committee in Christchurch.

The objects of the movement arc;— ta) To encourage support for the Free French forces in Australia and New Zealand and in other places throughout the world in aid of the cause of France (as constituted before the invasion of France by Germany in the year 1940), and’of the British Empire and its allies in the present war. (b) To organise the activities of French citizens and sympathisers in aid of such cause.

(c) To encourage the raising of funds for the Free French forces appeal in Australia and elsewhere.

(d) To organise the activities of French citizens in Australia and in other places through the world as citizens of France free from the domination, dictation, or control of Germany and Italy; and to exercise, in so far as such exercise may not be inconsistent with the laws of the Commonwealth of Australia or of any state therein or the Dominion of New Zealand, such of the powers, rights,' and privileges as General Charles de Gaulle of the Free French Council of Defence may delegate to it.