"FRANCE CANNOT DIE"

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 137, 11 June 1940, Page 7

"FRANCE CANNOT DIE"

M. REYNAUD SPEAKS

COMMENT ON ITALY'S ACT

WORLD WILL PASS JUDGMENT

PROMISE TO HITLER OBEYED

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.) (Received June 11, 12.30 p.m.)

PARIS, June 10. The French Premier, M. Re'ynaud, broadcasting, said:

"We are ready for the trial we have to face. Our heads will be unbowed. At a moment when France, wounded but valiant and devoted, is fighting against the hegemony of Germany—when she is fighting for the independence of all other peoples besides her own—Mussolini has chosen to declare war on us. How shall we judge this act? France has nothing to say; the world will pass judgment.

"You know the attitude of Italy towards our attempts at rapprochement, also that I followed my predecessor's example by saying publicly that there were no problems between Italy and France which could not be solved by friendly negotiation. The highest moral authorities in the world, the Pope and President Roosevelt, have repeatedly but vainly tried to prevent this war, which is opposed to all Christian ideals and human solidarity.

"Mussolini has decided that blood must flow. What was the pretext for this decision? When our Ambassador asked this question today Count Ciano replied that Mussolini was. only carrying out his promises to Hitler, The same declaration was addressed to Britain.

"Hostilities are beginning at midnight tonight, and force will now speak. T,he Allies are strong in the Mediterranean, even more so there than"*lse7 where.

"France enters this war with a pure conscience. For her this is not a mere word world. Perhaps we shall soon know that moral force provides great strength. France has survived even severer trials in her long and glorious history. France cannot die"

M. Reynaud had declared earlier: "The French armies are retreating slowly and have only abandoned strong points after inflicting crJel losses on the enemy. The war is no longer a war of continuous fronts but a war of strong points grouped in depth, and our armies are manoeuvring in retreat."