BROADCAST BY LAVAL

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23802, 23 November 1942, Page 5

BROADCAST BY LAVAL

“SITUATION TODAY IS TRAGIC ” RECONCILIATION WITH GERMANY URGED (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) (Bee. 10 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 21. •T am sure Germany will be victorious, but even if I thought she would be defeated I would not change my policy,” said M. Laval in a broadcast to the French people. “The situation today is tragic. The British and the Americans are tearing France limb from limb. France cannot live without her Empire, yet Britain and America have robbed her of it. “It is in the interests of France to come to a direct reconciliation with Germany. An entente with Germany is the sole guarantee of European peace. “We want Bolshevism kept from French civilisation. If Roosevelt wins, Americans and Jews will dominate France. “Some of you must be wondering whether France will defend her Empire against de Gaulle. If we could, we would jump at his throat, but we have not the means.’’ The Vichy radio has appealed for volunteers for the “Falange Africaine,” which is being established with headquarters at Vichy. M. Laval, in a statement, said he would not stand in the way of Frenchmen who desired to volunteer for the defence of the French Empire. Broadcasting over the Algiers radio, Admiral Darlan said: “We have sworn allegiance to Marshal Retain, but not to M. Laval. Marshal Retain, after the armistice, followed the only possible policy, enabling France to live and preventing a German occupation of North Africa. Without this policy, it would have been more difficult for the Allies to assist us to regain our liberty. “Marshal Petain shares my friendly feeling for the Americans. I am following his earlier instructions in accepting British and American aid in the liberation of French sovereignty.” A German Foreign Office spokesman said that the position in which M. Laval found himself could not be described as rosy. It could not yet be foreseen how M. Laval intended to solve the task before him, or how he would succeed in finding a basis on which France would be able to play her part in Europe. The Algiers correspondent of the “New York Times,” Mr Drew Middleton, commenting on Admiral Darlan’s administration in North Africa, says it is best fitted to aid the British and Americans in ousting the Axis from Africa. He adds: “It is conceivable that the Allies will receive important aid from the French soldiers, who are magnificent fighting material. In addition there is a wealth of future soldiers in the French youth organisations, of which some have been frankly Fascist in the past, but are now prepared to switch to the democratic side because, like the Axis side in 1940, it offers the best chance of advancement. Admiral Darlan offers the Allies certain advantages which no other French group in North Africa could offer. Not only is French North Africa now secure for the Allies, but the French will certainly resist German attacks everywhere, as they did at Tunis.”

FRENCH WATERS IN MEDITERRANEAN

BRITISH ADMIRALTY ANNOUNCEMENT (8.0. W.) RUGBY, Nov. 21. The Admiralty announces that, the German and Italian Governments having set aside the armistice with France and occupied the French Mediterranean coast, the United States and British Governments are compelled to declare certain areas in the Mediterranean dangerous to shipping. All waters in the Mediterranean, excluding Turkish territorial waters, are dangerous to shipping to the east of a line from the French-Spanish border, along the edge of Spanish territorial waters to the Algerian coast.