FRENCH LEADERS DISAGREE

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23973, 14 June 1943, Page 5

FRENCH LEADERS DISAGREE

Army Purge Sought By de Gaulle POST OF DEFENCE COMMISSIONER (Ecc. s) pin.) LONDON, June 11. "The French Committee of National Liberation is in the throes cW the greatest crisis since its foundation,’’ says the Algiers correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System. “The meeting arranged for to-day was suspended pending a reply by General Giraud to a letter from General de Gaulle, in which General de Gaulle demanded an assurance that proVichy elements would be completely purged from the upper ranks of the French Army. “General de Gaulle added that unless full guarantees were given that a purge would be carried out it would be useless to pursue the conversations further.” The Algiers correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Agency says that some French Army officers whom General de Gaulle wishes to be purged compel their men to swear allegiance to Marshal Petain. Others toast Marshal Petain in the mess in defiance of General Giraud’s orders. Another report says that General de Gaulle is threatening to resign over the army reorganisation issue. He is also said to be strongly opposing General Giraud’s desire to become Commissioner for Defence, while retaining his position as French Commander-in-Chief. Reuter states that the real basic issue is who is to lead France, and neither side is giving way. Causes of Dispute A British Official Wireless message says: “Algiers messages report that members of the French Committee of National Liberation are working to solve the controversy between General de Gaulle and General Giraud, joint presidents of the committee, over army reform. Differences arose over methods of carrying out reorganisation and the proposed elimination of untrustworthy elements. The problems are connected with the unsolved questions of who should be Commander-in-Chief and who Commissioner for Defence. “Correspondents reports that Genera! de Gaulle regards himself as faced by the same insufficiently progressive spirit as prevailed in the General Staff before the French defeat. General Giraud and General Georges, on the other hand, are reluctant to see many fellow officers dismissed and the Army revolutionised at a critical moment of French history. Their supporters doubt whether changes which proved suitable for the comparatively small Fighting French forces should be applied with the wholesale rapidity on which General de Gaulle is believed to insist, even to the point of offering his resignation. “In London it is recalled that the present differences appear less serious than those which were overcome to unite the two French movements in one national committee, and hopes are therefore maintained that a solution will be found by agreement, and that the leaders will not act in a manner which might delay a solution and prejudice the common cause. "The greatest sympathy and admiration has always been, and is. felt in Britain for General de Gaulle, but nevertheless it must be recorded that his actions have by no moans always commended themselves In those in responsible positions. General de Gaulle is a man ol brilliant talents, but not the ideal leader of a movement which by its very nature is and must be democratic.' His is a personality which with difficulty adjusts itself harmoniously to combined enterprise. “Evidently the French loaders feel strongly on important problems. It is fell very strongly in London, however. that no difference between (he Allies in an important war area should b allowed to imperil either the French unitv so hardly established or the solidarity of the United Nations themselves. 'Ccrtair.lv no countenance would bo given to any idea that either leader could find support in any particular Allied country."

Mr Jones lo Broadcast.— The New Zealand Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. Jones) will broadcast in the Pacific short-wave service cf the 8.8.C. a! 5.15 a.m. Greenwich mean time on Monday (5.15 p.m. Now Zealand time;.—London, June 12.