FRENCH DEFENCE POLICY

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25299, 26 September 1947, Page 7

FRENCH DEFENCE POLICY

RADICAL SOCIALIST CRITICISM

“ RUSSIA IS OUR PRESENT PERIL” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 11-39 pm.) PARIS, Sept. 25. rench military unpreparedness was severely criticised yesterday by Mr Anxionnaz, chairman of the French National Assembly’s National Defence Committee and secretary-general of the Radical Socialist Party. France, he said, was also pursuing the wrong policy by insisting on treating Germany and not Russia as the immediate danger. . “I say this is wrong at the moment. It may be true in 10 or 15 years, but the present peril is Russia.” Mr Anxionnaz, who was addressing the Anglo-American Press Association, said that France had an army, but it lacked the right training and right strategy. "We have no effective national defence based on a clear conception of where the potential aggressor lies,” he said. He was not sure that American strategy included plans for the complete defence of France, but there was no doubt that if conflicts arose- Russia would immediately extend her European fortress and pour tanks and troops into France. Even more than a Russian occupation of France he feared a seizure of

power by the French Communist Party, which would smooth the road for occupation. “If the Government does not announce that we shall fight the Russians if they try to invade us and take the proper preparation, we shall be helpless. This is why the Communists must not be allowed back into the Government.”