DISARMING OF FLEET

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 6, 6 July 1940, Page 12

DISARMING OF FLEET

MEANINGLESS GERMAN OFFER

LONDON, July 5,

The German armistice commission has now offered not to enforce that clause of the armistice agreement under which the French fleet is to be disarmed. The action at Oran is offered as the reason for this step, which, on the face- of it, would appear to be a concession to France. Actually it is nothing of the sort. Having compelled the Petain Government to place its fleet in an impossible position, Germany is seizing on the British action as an excuse for keeping the French fleet in being, but it is an empty gesture for Germany to offer not to disarm a fleet she does not possess. It also goes to show that if they could lay hands on it they would treat their promise not to use it in the same way as they have treated other promises. Among expressions of universal approval of Britain's action is that of a leading Turkish newspaper which says that Britain has taken the initiative and in two days has proved' her mastery of the Mediterranean. France would'have continued the war if those in power had not preferred Fascism to democracy. _^^^