DEMILITARISED

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 9, 10 July 1940, Page 7

DEMILITARISED

MEDITERRANEAN SHIPS

AGREEMENT REACHED

GOOD RELATIONS

LONDON, July ,9

The following official statement about the French fleet at Alexandria was issued today by the British naval authorities there:—"ln the Mediterranean the closest comradeship and good will have existed between the Allied forces conducting the war from Alexandria. When the terms of the armistice became known,_ it became evident that a new situation had developed, and the French admiral was asked to consider various proposals on the lines of those given at Oran.,

"Being in a foreign harbour and in the presence of a greatly superior British Fleet, there was no possibility of taking the French ships to sea, and as that attempt would only endanger valuable French lives it was agreed by the admiral to put his ships in a condition in which they could not go to sea. This was done by reducing the oil on board, by demilitarising the ships (by landing certain portions of their armament and placing them under the care of the French authorities ashore), and by reducing the crews. This is being done now, and the men are being sent to Syria, to be sent to France later as decided by :the French admiral. For their part, the British Government have, guaranteed to supply and pay the men in charge of the maintenance of the ships and also the return of the men to France at the end of the war. This is how the matter stands at present, and it is t hoped that these conditions will continue. In the Eastern Mediterranean terrible events, of which we all know, have been avoided, and the best hope is that our good relations may continue as before. Our only wish throughout has been to make sure that Italy and Germany do not possess the French ships to use them against the British, who are still fighting on to defeat Germany and Italy and to re-establish France."