The Dominion MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1941. GROWING UNREST IN FRANCE

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 287, 1 September 1941, Page 6

The Dominion MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1941. GROWING UNREST IN FRANCE

The attack on M. Laval and M. Deat. may be taken as symptomatic of a growing unrest in France which all the efforts of the Vichy censorship and propaganda have been unable to conceal. Various recent reports suggest that this has become intensified by the German attack on Russia, the proclamation by the Vichy Government of the introduction of the so-called “new order in France, and its call for volunteers to join the “Anti-Bolshevik ’ force being raised to fight on the side of the Germans on the Eastern Front. It was at a parade of those volunteers that the 1 attack on M. Laval was made, and the fact, subsequently ascertained, that volunteers had been using the legion as part of an anti-German movement deepens the impression gathered from previous incidents indicative of unrest that popular French opposition to Vichy and its policy is becoming definitely organized. This is further confirmed by the recent drastic measures promulgated by Vichy decrees for the suppression of subversive movements.

There may be several movements of this kind, but the two mainsprings of action probably are derived from the very large Communist elements in France whose pro-Russian sympathies have exposed them to systematic persecution by the Vichy authorities, and froin the general public resentment reported to have been aroused by the New Order” proclamation which deprived the French people of long-held liberties, rights, and privileges enjoyed under the now defunct Third Republic. All this would suggest that the ground is becoming increasingly favourable for a Free French forward movement by the adherents of General de Gaulle.

In November last General de Gaulle stated’ that as evidence of the growth of the movement there were then 35,000 trained troops under arms, 20 warships at sea, 1000 airmen on active service, 60 merchant ships, many technicians working on armaments, territories in full activity in Africa, French India, and Oceania, and increasing financial resources, newspapers, and wireless stations. The figures, as brought up to date by General de Gaulle in a statement last week, now stand at 40 naval vessels, 100 merchantmen, 2000 airmen, and 60,000 trained troops. To these numbers might be added, on the authority of a contributor to the New York Life magazine, Free French forces in Equatorial Africa totalling, including blacks, 100,000, an estimate which makes due allowance for the strength of the forces elsewhere. This is significant progress. Recent reports indicate that the leakage of Frenchmen from occupied France and colonial territories still under Vichy control, such as Somaliland, is so persistent that strict measures have had to be taken to control it.

Significant, also, of Admiral Darlan’s apprehensions about the Vichy morale in French colonial Africa is the reshuffling of the military commands, involving, it is stated, the virtual obscurity of General Weygand by the appointment of generals more amenable to the German requirements for collaboration in this region. Quite possibly, moreover, these measures may have been taken in anticipation of an attempted coup by the Free French forces in North Africa when their strength has been further augmented and their organization for such a move perfected.