NAZI PROPOSALS TO FRANCE

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23330, 16 May 1941, Page 9

NAZI PROPOSALS TO FRANCE

Vichy’s Acceptance USE OF SYRIA HELD LIKELY

(united press ASSOCIATION—COPTWQHT.) (Received May 15, 11 p.m.) LONDON, May 15,

Agency messages suggest that a statement on collaboration between France and Germany may be published to-day in Berlin. This follows the official announcement from Vichy yesterday that the French Cabinet had unanimously approved Herr Hitler s requirements in return for recent concessions to Vichy. The effect of the negotiations, it was said, would make themselves felt soon.

What the German requirements are is not known, but it is generally taken for granted that Germany has asked for a great deal more than she is prepared to give in return. Commentators consider that the most immediate German demand is for the use of Syria as a base of operations.

Mr Raymond Gram Swing, the well-known American commentator, declares that transit through Syria towards Egypt and the Suez is Germany’s most urgent need at present

The “Daily Telegraph” says: “There is reason to believe that the meeting of the French Cabinet at which Admiral Darlan’s negotiations with Hitler were approved concerned the situation in Syria. Hitler is reported to have sent for Admiral Harlan in order to demand assurances that if Germans landed in Syria by air the French garrison would be withdrawn or refrain from intervening.

“When Hitler sends for a foreign statesman to hand him an ultimatum, he usually acts as though the terms are already fulfilled. Consequently one may expect to hear at any moment that German aeroplanes carrying troops and material have actually landed at Aleppo. The possibility of landings from the sea must also be considered.

“The official report after the meeting of the Cabinet in Vichy is merely a smoke screen, maintaining the pretence that Admiral Darlan’s visit was'intended to conclude economic negotiations which are already concluded.

“Britain is bound by her declaration of July, 1940, that she 'could not allow Syria to be occupied by a hostile Power or used as a base for attacks On other countries in the Middle East’ It is believed the implications of this declaration are now under discussion with Vichy in London and Washington.”

The official news agency in Vichy announced that two German aeroplanes landed at an aerodrome in the region of Mosul. It was not known whether they are civil or military machines, and for this reason it is unwise to deduce that this is a start of military aid for Iraq. The Vichy correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain states that the Cabinet’s decision will prove a fateful act. The details of Kerr Hitler’s terms have not been revealed, but some are of the opinion that they amount.to co-operation with the Aids m a plan designed to keep the United States out of the war.

SJuestioned in the House of Comns regarding the French Government’s policy, the Foreign Secretary (Mr R. A. Eden); said: “The policy which has been adopted and declared by France is collaboration with Germany within certain limits which have not. so far as I am aware, been dearly defined. The • agreement with Germany S? . Ms, y 5 provides*, according to an official announcement issued, in Vichy, for alleviation of the restrictive measures regarding the line of demarcation between occupied and un-' occupied France, and for a reduction

m ■ the cost of occupation from 400,000,000 to 500,000,000 francs a day. "The line of demarcation would, according to a communique,. b« open generally for the passage of goods between the two zones and also for persons in the case of serious illness of near relatives. 1110 dispatch of plain postcards from one zone to the Other would also be authorised, and soldiers and airmen would be aUowed to pass from one zone to the other under conditions which hitherto applied to sailors only. • “No official announcement has been made regarding what may have been conceded by France to return for these So-called concessions, but the agreement is described in Vichy, es a new step along the path of collaboration, Whatever concessions Admiral DarJan may have agreed to. I And It Hard to believe that the French people, helpless though they may be to prevent the systematic German spoliation of their resources, will, be so false to their noble traditions as to work actively of their own free will for the German cause and thus prolong the period of their own sufferings and postpone the day of their Own liberation.”