USE BY BRITAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 17, 19 July 1940, Page 8

USE BY BRITAIN

FRENCH MERCHANTMEN

CHANCE FOR MEN TO SERVE

SEIZURE OF CARGOES

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.) (Received July 19 1.40 p.m.) LONDON, July 18. The Ministry of Shipping has announced that the Government is requisitioning French merchantmen which are in United Kingdom ports. They will sail under the British flag and will also fly the French flag "as a token of the determination of free Frenchmen to participate in the common struggle." Many French officers and seamen have accepted an offer to remain aboard on the same terms of employment as British seamen. The ships will be returned with compensation after the war. General de Gaulle, addressing French sailors on the choice of repatriation or service with the Allies, said: "The more men we can get and the more ships we can use the nearer will victory come. Rest assured that there will be ultimate victory. France is not dead, and she can be saved." "The Grenoble newspaper "Petit Dauphinois" says that the British have seized 300,000 tons of foodstuffs and oils which were en ,route to France. There is no confirmation of this statement in London, but it is authoritatively stated that various goods were brought to England in French and neutral ships which were fleeing from France or which were unable to complete their voyages to France. These | cargoes have been requisitioned, and the owners will be compensated, although the sums due to owners in France will be blocked.