Evening Post THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1942. PETAIN'S DILEMMA

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 6, 8 January 1942, Page 6

Evening Post THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1942. PETAIN'S DILEMMA

When Marshal Petain, in his somewhat cryptic New Year broadcast to the people of France, used the words, "France is in danger at any moment of being involved in serious difficulties threatening her existence and unity," his meaning was by no means clear in so generalised and guarded an utterance. He did not in this sentence or elsewhere in his message refer to external threats. Yesterday's comment, from various sources, on the situation in France makes plainer his meaning. It is the impatience of the Nazi conquerors with what they regard as the deliberate dilatoriness of Vichy in collaboration with the Axis and in. carrying out the Axis plans that constitutes the "danger" of which the Marshal warned the French people. The German announcer on the Paris radio, quoted in the news, summed up the Nazi attj-! tude to France in the words, "France must be a part of the European collaboration, and, whether you want it or not, we will see to it that she is." What Hitler wants is, of cfourse, the use of French North Africa as a base against Britain, and the French navy also to challenge British seapower in the Mediterranean. There have been times when it looked as if Hitler might get both. Those times were when the Axis stocks were high and those of the Allies low. The posi* tion is different now. The news of the German retreat in Russia, of the loss of Cyrenaica to the British, and the British raids in Norway—above all, the entry of the United States into the war against the triple aggressors—is spreading through occupied and unoccupied Europe and stiffening popular resistance to the oppressors and cooling the enthusiasm of would-be collaborators. There is no longer the belief in the invincibility of German arms, and faith in the ultimate victory of the Axis is fading, has always been a barometer of these variations of atmosphere. The Men of Vichy have one aim—to be on the winning side—and they steer their course accordingly. Petain himself is no friend of Britain, certainly no believer in democracy. His queer reactionary political philosophy is a mixture of Fascism and feudalism, displayed in the monstrous "constitution" he has concocted to replace the Third Republic in France. But he clings to the idea of preserving France intact and independent eventually, if that were possible, of Germany and Italy. For that reason and for his stubborn resistance to concessions to the Axis that would inevitably involve France, or French territory, in a war with the democracies he is still the only Frenchman who commands a following outside the sycophants and careerists of the inner circle of Vichy. For that reason also the Germans fear that his retirement or deposition would be the signal for civil war in France. Darlan has ranged himself definitely at the Marshal's side in his New Year message to the forces: "We know only one leader—Marshal Petain, who is for us the symbol of honour." So "The Times" correspondent on the German frontier is no doubt right in assuming that Hitler is desperate enough to welcome civil strife in France as an excuse for intervention and the supersession of Petain and Darlan by the genuine, full-fledged quislings MM. Laval, Deat, Doriot, and their henchmen. So the Marshal's New Year appeal for unity among the French people—unity or submission to the conqueror—is likely to fall on the deaf ears of a people betrayed and full of bitter hatred for their betrayers. Far. better for the French if they had followed the example of Mr. Churchill's "stout-hearted Dutch" and left their country to the,* conqueror to continue the fight overseas. There is no end to the ignominy of people betrayed by/their rulers.