THE REACTION AGAINST VICHYISM

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 53, 30 August 1940, Page 6

THE REACTION AGAINST VICHYISM

French Equatorial Africa, the subject of a broadcast by General de Gaulle, lies in a broad belt across the middle of what used to be "the Dark Continent," and the French Cameroons links up the Equatorial belt with the Atlantic Ocean, providing there a naval base. All these coastal and inland French regions— including Chad, and following the example of Chad—have now come into the war on the side of Britain, according to General de Gaulle; but the Vichy Government claims that it has "taken measures to deal with the rebellion in Chad." Vichy messages admit a rebellion not only in the Equatorial-West Coast belt of French African territories mentioned above, but also in "French Eas' Africa," which •latter name appears to mean French Somaliland, on the opposite coast to that of the Cameroons; that is to say, on the east coast of Africa. Britain's recent loss of British Somaliland was due to being let down by the Vichy Government in the adjoining territory of French Somaliland, so any rebellion there has our good wishes. The general picture, then, suggested by these messages is that there is a chance that those parts of Equatorial Africa that belonged to France and Britain (including British West Africa, British Nigeria, British Uganda, and the AngloEgyptian Sudan) will stand together in the war; and with them may be included the Belgian Congo. As to French Somaliland, with its strategically important relationship to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, the position is uncertain; in this region the Italians, if not the Vichy Government, have military strength. The African picture is not complete without Egypt—where the cause of freedom finds new hope—and French Tunis, where anti-British influence and the forces of reaction seem to have the upper hand. And mention of Egypt and Tunis raises the whole question of the war in the eastern Mediterranean. Syria is of the highest strategic importance, and it vould be a matter of rejoicing if General de Gaulle could make the same pronouncement concerning Syria as he has made concerning French Equatorial Africa and the Cameroons. But the middle courses adopted by General Mittelhauser after receiving an air-carried note from General Weygand seem to have developed an increasingly anti-British bias, the end of which is not yet. General Mittelhauser's name sounds just as German as General de Gaulle's name sounds French; and it may be true, after all, that our names do help to shape our destinies. History may find in the Vichy Government a test case.