VICHY’S FUTURE

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 59, 3 December 1941, Page 7

VICHY’S FUTURE

Petain And Goering Meet I THREE-HOUR TALK Co-operation In New Order (By' Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) I (Received December 2, 10 p.m.) LONDON, December 2. It is announced in Vichy that the French Chief of State, Marshal Petain, and the Premier, Admiral Darlan, have returned after meeting Rtichsmarshal Goering 80 miles south-east of Paris in German occupied France. The French Secretary of State, M. Benoist Mechvin, told the Press at the German Embassy in Paris that as a result of the meeting, the French could envisage the future with increased confidence; He added that the meeting had permitted a broad examination of problems which would be discussed in more detail in the coming weeks.

Semi-official commentary in Berlin stated that the principle of co-opera-tion in the spirit of the newgorder has been unmistakably intensified as a result of the conversations. Another Berlin statement said Marshal Petain’s visit to occupied France caused no surprise. Naturally political circles attached considerable importance to the meeting, but abstained from conjecture. The statement then pointedly recalled a recent article in a Paris newspaper by M. Marcel Deat emphasizing the urgent necessity for adequate and active defence of the French Colonial Empire.

The Madrid correspondent of the “Daily Mail” says Petain and Goering are believed to have discussed immediate German use of French Mediterranean and North African ports for rushing reinforcements to General Rommel in Libya. Diplomatic circles in Madrid emphasize that if Petain agrees to this German demand it will be the first step to the full surrender of all French bases, including Oran, Casablanca and Dakar. '

The French envoy to Paris, Count de Brinon, in an interview, said the meeting was not negotiation but a general conversation between two men having mutual esteem for each other as sol\piers. Nevertheless, something most important might emerge from it. . The meeting took place in Goering’s special train at the St. Florentin station. Petain and Goering conferred for 15 minutes before Darlan was called in. The talks then continued for three hours.