NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 142, 18 June 1942, Page 4

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

FRANCE'S CHOICE

EFFECT ON ALLIED CAUSE

It was two years yesterday since the French Government at Bordeaux capitulated to the Nazi conqueror and sued for an armistice. Five days later—June 22, 1940— the armistice was signed, and fn the poorest third of France Marshal Petain set up his Government with its capital at Vichy. This political solution of a military problem, which might have been solved in other ways, has, of all events, had the profoundest effect "on the .course of the war. It is worth while reviewing what two years of Vichy has meant to the Allies: in their fight for freedom. First of all, it should be said that the solution adopted by the "Men of Vichy," as they have been called, with regard to France—and there is nothing to show that their decision represented the will of the French people as a whole, or even of a majority—differed -from; the course chosen by every other Government in the ; conquered countries of Europe. iOiey went into exile and from exile continued the fight—Poland, Norway, Holland,' .'Belgium, Czecho-Slovakia, Yugoslavia, _ and Greece. Suppose that the French Government, instead of-/Surrendering and ceasing the struggle, had elected' to quit. France for, say,.- North Africa —as Reynaud, in his last days as Premier, urged and Britain '. earnestly besought it to do, with pledges of the utmost assistance—and from" North Africa carried on,the fight. What would have been,, the, result? When with the Government had gone the powerful French fleet, the air force, the funds—some of the gold is now at Martinique—and no doubt much of the army still in the field and beyond the reach of the Germans, as the million men were in the army on the Italian frontier, France would still have been a/very powerful.ally , of Britain —more powerful than any of the other allies; at- the time, and, almost certainly, more powerful than all put together .A.-, the- back of France in,exile would have been the rich French Empire, in Africa, Asia, Oceania,- and America, with great material resources and ample manpower. ; Why the Choice? Why did Petain and.his colleagues make the fatal choice and take the wrong turning? "It is known now from the proceedings.of the Riom trials that they thought- Britain was doomeddoomed to have herv "neck wrung like a chicken," as, the saying; went, within a few weeks after the fall of France. From this incredibly short-sighted and dishonourable misjudgment most of the later troubles have sprung. If the French Government in June* 1940, had gone to Africa, the whole .course of the war in the Mediterranean, and Middle East would' have been changed. The combined British and French fleets could easily have disposed of the weak Italian fleet or kept it confined to port. The conquest of all Italian North Africa would have been completed long before Rommel could have got there and the Mediterranean made safe for convoys to the Middle East. Greece, mightdiaye been.saved, if the four divisions?of the British Imperial: Army had -been supplemented, as they could have been, by the French forces in Syria. It is. extremely unlikely even' that Hitler would have ventured to attack Russia, if .he had had to, hold; down the 40,000,000 of French people in the West, seething with hatred v and accessible to help from Britain and France across narrow seas which they commanded. Nor-would Japan have been able to occupy Indo-Chma if France had retained her - fleet intact and,"with the help of Britain)- protected her colonial empire. ', '. '■■ Tally of Injury. The tale and tally of injury done to the Allied-cause by the action of the little coterie in the councils of France in June, 1940, and its consequences could be prolonged and multiplied in much greater detail. Its effect is felt in every theatre of the war from the West Indies across the Atlantic through West and North Africa, Madagascar,' and the Indian Ocean to China and the Pacific. What has France gained by the Vichy solution? - It is doubtful whether metropolitan France would have been much, if any, the worse off, if it had come entirely under German occupation. The French people are half-starved now under German exploitation and spoliation of their food resources. Hostages are shot in Paris and other centres of occupied France, just as they are shot in Belgium, Holland, Norway, Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia. The French could hardly have been worse off, and, in addition, their struggle for freedom today is crippled by the collaboration of Vichy with their conquerors. For the Germans the. Vichy solution has been infinitely more useful than the sheer conquest of France. It has given them a valuable channel of supplies from the outer world, to that extent nullifying the blockade, and it has imposed on Britain and America a whole series of diplomatic, and even military, operations distasteful and unsatisfactory,' and designed almost wholly to keep Vichy from an even more open collaboration with the Axis that would permit the use by the enemy of the French fleet and the fuller use of French colonial bases. Repercussions Today. \ So it' can be said ./with .truth that what happened at Bordeaux two years ago is having its repercussions in the Mediterranean and the Middle East today. ' Rommel's advance in Libya to the outskirts of Tobruk and the four days' fight, to get a British convoy through the Mediterranean Narrows, not unscathed, to Tobruk, are directly due to the difficulties caused by the Vichy policy instituted two years ago. Rommel could not have been reinforced with success unless Axis convoys had been able to shelter in the territorial waters of Tunis on the way to Tripoli. It is even suggested that some of the heavier guns he has been using to reduce British strongpoints in Libya were brought from North Africa. In any case it has made the position of the Eighth Army difficult in many respects and j imperilled the defences of Tobruk? At the moment resistance is successful, but there is a wide area to the east towards the Egyptian border still open to Rommel's panzer manoeuvres, if he has sufficient tanks at his disposal. : In Russia and China. In the Crimea Sebastopol grimly hangs on. The next few days should determine the issue in this vital area. Elsewhere in Russia there is a momentary lull. China is the: chief danger zone in the Japanese theatre of war/ The invaders are making steady headway against stout resistance in v the coastal provinces of Chjiia south of the Yangtze. Air attacks in the■ zbrie; north of Australia are keeping >the enemy* at bay. It is uncertain where next, if anywhere, the Japanese / air atid' naval forces will try to break out of their wide- encirclement.: : : >; ;: :: :. : ,