France’s Liberation

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23715, 13 August 1942, Page 4

France’s Liberation

M. Laval’s statement that “ the hour “ of liberation for France will be the “ day when Germany wins the war " brings nearer the inevitable break between the Vichy Government and the United Nations. The occasion c £ the statement was significant. The German Government has released 1000 of the 1,500,000 French prisoners of war now held in Germany; and at a frontier station where the repatriated prisoners met French

workers on their way to Germany M. Laval made a speech which stopped barely short of proclaiming that Vichy France is a passive ally of the Axis—as in fact she is. The principal theme of his speech was economic collaboration between France and Germany, which, he claimed, was becoming daily more complete. If collaboration, means the plundering of unoccupied France’s meagre economic resources by Germany, then the claim is valid, for in this respect unoccupied France is little better off than the countries administered from Berlin. Last month, for instance, the Vichy Government closed large numbers of factories because of “ shortage of “ raw materials.”. The real reason was disclosed by posters on the factory walls telling displaced workers that employment awaited them in Germany. And only last week Vichy’s Minister of Communications issued a long statement outlining plans for developing the transport facilities afforded by France’s inland waterways. .Here again the reason is not far to seek. Germany’s railway system is deteriorating so rapidly because of lack of provision for replacements and maintenance and latterly because of transport needs in Russia that it is now the weakest point in the German economy. It is a safe guess that rolling stock from unoccupied France has been going across the border But as the time for an Allied land offensive in western Europe draws nearer, it is becoming increasingly apparent that even economic collaboration which amounts to economic subservience will not solve the problems of Vichy France’s relationship with Germany. Neutrality will not be possible for Vichy when the invasion begins; and M. Laval and his propaganda machine are now energetically trying to persuade Frenchmen that their interests lie in helping Hitler to keep the Allies out of Europe. Thus, the French legion to fight Bolshevism has lately been converted into a legion which “will “ fight against American imperialism “and Anglo-Saxon greed” as well as against the Russians. These de? velopments have caused the British Government to withdraw its objections to Free French activity in unoccupied France; and on June 23 the Free French National Council in London announced the conclusion of an agreement with the leaders of the underground antiGerma'n movement in occupied and unoccupied France. Thus, a movement officially recognised by the British Government is actively and openly planning the overthrow of the Vichy regime. It would need only the recognition of the Free French National Council by the United States to force Laval to throw in his hand with Hitler. And when that happens Frenchmen everywhere will have to make a choice which they ought to have been compelled to make long ago.