BREAK WITH VICHY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 96, 24 April 1942, Page 5

BREAK WITH VICHY

SOUTH AFRICA

CANADA STILL REPRESENTED

LONDON, April 23. It is announced that South Africa has broken off diplomatic relations with Vichy. This was disclosed at Ottawa by an official of the Ministry of External Affairs. According to a Reuter message, he declared that Canada was now the last British Dominion in which Vichy has representation, and he thought South Africa's decision would bring the matter to a head in Canada. The Canadian Government would be guided more by what the United States did. South Africa's decision was announced in Pretoria today. South Africa has no representative in Vichy at present and has had no diplomatic representation since the fall of France, but the French Minister in Pretoria continued in his post after Britain and Vichy had severed diplomatic relations. It is reported from Vichy that the new Japanese Ambassador today presented facsimiles of his letters of credentials to M. Laval in his capacity as Foreign Minister. The Vichy news agency adds that it is not known when the Japanese envoy .will present his actual' credentials to the Chief of State, Marshal Petain. The Marshal today celebrated his eighty-sixth birthday quietly, in the words of the Vichy news agency, "surrounded by the veneration of all." Berlin radio announced today that the former Minister of the Interior in the Vichy Cabinet is to "be the Vichy Ambassador to Switzerland.