NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 38, 13 August 1941, Page 6

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

VICHY JOINS AXIS

PETAIN'S BROADCAST

DARLAN IN CONTROL OF ALL FORCES

Marshal Petain's broadcast, summarised in today's news, without saying so in so many words, im- - plies beyond doubt that Vichy has joined the Axis. Admiral Darlan, an enemy of Britain from the start, has won the day and receives control of the whole land, sea, and air forces. Thus after fourteen months of sorry squirming and twisting since the armistice of June 22, 1940, waiting to see which way the war looked like going, the "men of Vichy" have thrown in their lot 1 with their former vnemies against their old allies. The Vichy Government, which has never represented the Freuch people, becomes, under, the Petain 12-point pi'ogramme, fully totalitarian. All political parties are abolished and Ministers and civil servants, presumably the armed forces, are to take the oath to Marshal Petain, as the Germans do to Hitler. Thus Petain becomes the Fuhrer of France. But the executive power—all that matters—is not in the hands of the senile octogenarian. Admiral Darlan takes charge of all that, and the nominal Fuhrer is only a figurehead, as Field-Marshal Hindenburg was in the similar twilight of his age. An Enemy of Britain. Darlan is a dangerous man. He was never a friend of Britain, though he commanded the French fleet which collaborated with the British in the nine months of the war before France collapsed. It was'he, probably, who influenced the French Government not j to hand over the French fleet to Britain or to put it beyond the reach of the Axis, the one condition on which Churchill consented to the Reynaud Government's appeal to be allowed to approach the German invaders with an inquiry as to the terms of an armistice. The same hostility characterised his refusal after the Armistice to accept the Churchill offer of honourable terms for the disposal of the French fleet so that it could not be used to harm Britain, then in a desperate position after Dunkirk. The "Battle of Oran" and the subsequent clash at Dakar were used by Darlan to create enmity in France towards Britain. At long last Darlan has got his way. So have the Nazis. Petain's Plans. What the precise plans are for participation in the Nazis' "new order Petain did not say, but it can hardly be doubted that they imply no longer passive but active hostility to Britain. They also imply a defiance of the United States, whose politics, said the old Marshal, have few parts in common with those oi France. This is the France whose ] Revolution was guided largely by the American Revolution, which France assisted with arms. As to Vichy s plans, it was suggested in Mondays, news by Daniel Brigham, "New York Times" correspondent in Switzerland —the nearest country to Vichy—that they include "an offensive and defensive agreement with Germany against Russia" and the granting of bases to Germany at Dakar and Casablanca on the Atlantic. It was also said by the correspondent that the agreement provided for "the eventual shipment of ■ French soldiers to the Eastern Front," but in the meantime French deliveries of war material to Germany would be increased in return for the release of certain classes of French prisoners of war. Even such measures would be of great help to Germany as they would release Germans for military service and replace, to some extent, the loss of production of war material in Germany through the destructive 'raids of the R.A.F. The moral effect of Vichy adhesion to the Axis could hardly fail to be felt in Spain, where General Franco recently adopted a more truculent attitude towards the j democracies, and also in Turkey and the Middle East. • \ Upsetting- the Balance. j 1 Full participation by France on thej side. of the Axis against the demo-1 cracies would tend to counterbalance the advantage to the Allies from the accession of ,Soviet Russia to their side j through Hitler's blitzkrieg in the east.! Some such' understanding must have J been reached with Japan before the j occupation of Indo-China as to cover) a general plan of action to counter American help to the democracies. Petain's broadcast' makes much clear that was obscure before. If France follows him and Darlan the scope of the war is likely to be greatly enlarged and its duration prolonged. The next step lies with America. If the French navy .takes the seas against Britain, the balance of sea-power will be affected to an extent that must seriously concern America in her deliveries of war material to Britain. Only time can show whether the French people as a whole will follow the Vichy lead. Situation in Russia. Meanwhile the military situation in Russia shows no improvement. The movements of German forces in the Southern ' Ukraine undoubtedly threaten Odessa and may compel a retirement of Marshal Budenny's armies to positions further east, protecting Kiev and the lower Dnieper, with its great hydro station at Dnepropetrovsk, but possibly sacrificing Odessa. The southern trend of the German push is indicated by the success of a Russian counter-attack at Koresten, north-west of Kiev, which the Germans claim to have captured two days ago. In this sector of the Russian front as elsewhere it is much more important that the Russians should save their armies from encirclement by retirement than that they should risk their destruction by too I obstinate a clinging to places of no vital strategic value. But it is quite clear that the danger is not over in Russia and the next few days will be critical. Until some sort of stability can be reached on the Russian front the most effective reply both the Russians and the British can make is the bombing of Berlin and other centres in Germany and occupied countries. This is being done. The R.A.F. have made their first daylight raid over Cologne, at substantial cost, but with heavy damage to important objectives. Similarly the Russians are reported to have destroyed the famous cantilever bridge over the Danube at Cernavoda, On the railway between Bucharest and Constanza. This is one of the largest and most beautiful bridges in Europe. This same bridge was wrecked by the retiring Rumanians in the Great War on October 25, 1916, when the Bulgarians were approaching from the south. It was repaired after the war.