NEW BETRAYAL PLAN

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 52, 25 November 1941, Page 7

NEW BETRAYAL PLAN

French General Warns Patriots

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. November 23.

Free French headquarters announce that General Odic, who was appointed chief of staff of the French air force after the armistice, and who subsequently went to the United States, has now joined General de Gaulle. In a statement in Washington, in which he said that Vichy wished to hand over North Africa to the Germans, General Odic said: “After the armistice I had hoped it would still be possible to follow Vichy’s policy with dignity. The maintenance of the empire’s integrity was the reason for the union of all Frenchmen, but if this unity could be accepted under sufferance it could not be accepted in abjection.

“Some men have tried, but through the intrigue and contemptuous indulgence of the victor I have often thought of regaining my freedom, yet I have still held by the hope of being able to preserve the integrity of North Africa. But today unity becomes an absurd fiction when it is used to destroy that which is its real aim. Fate of North Africa. “After the Syrian betrayal, Vichy now desires to hand over North Africa to the Germans. All our colonies in that region are threatened with German occupation, with the added humiliation that Frenchmen are asked to cooperate with the Germans in their plans. “General Weygand has resigned. The time has come for everybody to decide. France must not be obliged one day to pay for Vichy’s intrigues. France must not sit beside Germany on the bench of the accused. France must take her place among the judges. “That is what Frenchmen think today, but Vichy prefers civil war under protection of the enemy. Under those conditions passive disapproval is not enough. “French unity can be affirmed only through Free France. Under the command of General de Gaulle, I now resume the fight.”