VICHY'S MASK DROPPED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 120, 23 May 1941, Page 7

VICHY'S MASK DROPPED

OBEDIENT TO NAZIS

HITLER GAINS HIS AIM

ANGLO-FRENCH CLASH

LONDON, May 22,

With the German request to the United States to withdraw her diplomatic representatives from Paris, and also with the conference of Vichy Ministers being held in Paris and German emphasis that the French "now realise that they have no choice but to submit." France's relations with the democratic world are merging with the new and more crucial developments in the war situation.

The "Daily Telegraph's" representative on the French frontier says that correspondents in Vichy agree that the Petain Government has "dropped the mask." Nothing is now heard about adhering to the strict terms of the Armistice or respect for the difficulties of France's former ally.

Since the fall of Yugoslavia and Greece, the members of the Vichy Government have been convinced that a German victory is inevitable, and have taken care to propagate this "belief among the French people, who are allowed to hear little of Italy's defeats in Africa but much about the prospect of an early peace. This peace, they are being told, will by Hitler's magnanimity give France a role in Europe second only t.o that of Germany.

Among the advantages Hitler expects from Vichy's compliance is th© production of a state of affairs amount* ing to war between France and Britain, resulting from hostilities between the Vichy and Free French troops and also from other action against the Allies which Vichy admits she is contemplating. COLLABORATION TALKS. According to the Madrid correspond* ent of the "Daily Mail." the German Commander-in-Chief, General yon Brauchitsch, has gone to Paris for important talks which may decide the future extent of French-German collaboration. He met General yon Stulpnagel, commander of the German army of occupation, who is also participating in the talks. The Vichy correspondent of the British United Press says that the French Minister of War. General Huntziger, and M. Bouthillier, the Minister of Finance, have joined Admiral-Darlan in Paris.

The "Daily Telegraph" says that yesterday's meeting of members of the French Cabinet in Paris may be a preliminary to the regular operation of the French Government from Paris,