VICHY GOVERNMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 126, 30 May 1941, Page 8

VICHY GOVERNMENT

NOTE TO WASHINGTON

REPORTED INTENTIONS

LONDON. May 29

The Madrid correspondent of the "Daily Mail" says the Vichy Government's latest Note to Washington, in which the United States was assured that France would not hand over her fleet or colonies to any foreign Power. shows clearly that Admiral Darlan's attitude has changed considerably in the last ten days, and that this is doubtless because of protests from the entire French nation. Marshal Petain has ordered Admiral Darlan to do his utmost to reconcile American public opinion, and also to give every possible proof that collaboration with Germany is forced on France by circumstances, and does not mean co-operation in any military sense. ! The Note signed by Admiral Darlan, i the correspondent says, contains a long j and detailed report on the French : ! situation, and gives details of the | whereabouts of units of the French i fleet, which is described as "still a j formidable and undefeated fighting i force." It says that the battleship Richelieu, which was damaged by the British at Dakar, is now repaired, and the battleship Jean Bart, which went to [ Oran in an unfinished state when France collapsed, is now completed and ready for sea. THE SMALLER SHIPS. The battle-cruiser Strasbourg and the battleship Provence are stated to be in commission in French waters; the cruisers Georges Leygues. Gloire. and Montcalm (7600-ton ships with nine 6-inch guns) are in African waters, the aircraft-carrier Beam (22,000 tons) and the cruiser Jeanne d'Arc (of 6400 tons with eight 6.1-inch guns) are now in the West Indies, and the cruisers Algerie, Colbert, Foch, and Dupleix (all 10,000-ton 8-inch-gun ships) are in the Mediterranean with 45 modern destroyers and 50 submarines. The Note declares that France again gives her solemn word that the mili-tai-y terms of the armistice will in no way be allowed to be superseded or surpassed. This does not mean that France is able to resume the war in >rder to enforce her own strict neutrality, but it means that she will not <?llow the Germans or Italians to occupy any French base in North Africa or elsewhere.

Though Admiral Darlan was unable to reassure Washington that French troops will not attack the African colonies adhering to General de Gaulle, he is believed to have tentatively proposed that an expedition against the Free French might be postponed if the United States guaranteed that she would not occupy the French West Indian islands, and also Dakar and Casablanca.

Admiral Darlan declared that at present no more Germans were going to Irak across Syria.—U.P.A.