WORKING OUT VERY

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 111, 4 February 1943, Page 5

WORKING OUT VERY

WELL Pres. Roosevelt On French Politics

ALLIES’ OFFENSIVES (British Official Wireless and Press Assn.)

RUGBY, February 2.

President Roosevelt, speaking at his first Press conference since his return from Casablanca, re-emphasized that his conference with Mr. Churchill was designed to formulate plans for a complete victory. Complete agreement had been reached on the aim of unconditional surrender by the Axis. Mr. Roosevelt stressed repeatedly that Casablanca was essentially a military, naval, and air conference, and everything which was considered was thought of in that light. It was a conference to win the war, and its planning in this direction went ‘‘as far as one can plan in 1943 to win.” The decisions which had been reached at Casablanca would lead to newer and harder blows against the Axis, he said. He emphasized that the United Nations would strike hard in Europe. The President quoted from his message to Congress on January 7, in which he said: “I cannot prophesy nor tell you where we are going to strike, but we are going to strike hard.” ■ Referring to the criticism regarding.the absence of M. Stalin and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek from Casablanca. Mr. Roosevelt pointed out that Russia was not fighting Japan and that China was so geographically situated that she could not engage in an offensive against Germany. French Armies. Mr. Roosevelt devoted a large part of his remarks to the political situation in North Africa, which, in his opinion, was working out very well. He predicted greater co-operation between Generals de Gaulle and Giraud and their staffs as a result of Casablanca. He quoted from an interview in which General Giraud praised General de Gaulle and professed great admiration for and agreement with the leader of the Fighting French. Mr. Roosevelt said that General Giraud told him he could build an army of about 250,000 if he was furnished with certain weapons, and an effort was now under way to send the latest modern equipment. General de Gaulle, Mr. Roosevelt said, had now between 15,000 and 20,000 Frenchmen in Equatorial Africa, and possibly some in Madagascar. The column of General de Gaulle’s forces fighting in Tunisia was in close touch with General Giraud’s column. Virtually all the political prisoners in North Africa who wanted to fight the Germans had been released. Some were still held because they were accused Of crimes. The report that support for General de Gaulle was regarded as a crime was absolutely untrue. Mr. Roosevelt stressed that almost universal good will prevailed between the Americans and the French forces which opposed the November landings. The President also discussed at length his meeting with President Vargas, and said that be had conferred with the President of Brazil on an increased effort by that republic to fight the submarine problem in the South Atlantic. They agreed, said Mr. Roosevelt, that any draft peace must eliminate any future threat from the African coast against the South American coast. Mr. Roosevelt revealed that he left Mr. Churchill at Manakish, where the Prime Minister was sketching the Atlas Mountains. Total American Army. The President’s only reported comment on the meeting between Mr. Churchill and President Inonu of Turkey was that it concerned closer relationship in the prosecution of the war. The Associated Press of America reports that Mr. Roosevelt told the Congressional leaders during the conference in the White House, that approximately 7,500.000 men was the maximum the American Army needed to win the war. The Casablanca conference did not reach a decision on an over-all Allied command because the' Russian and Chinese leaders were not present. The war of attrition in the Pacific, he said, was having a telling. though slow, effect on Japan. Mr. Roosevelt warned that the war might continue for a long time.