OPINION ON GIRAUD'S OFFER

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 65, 18 March 1943, Page 5

OPINION ON GIRAUD'S OFFER

(Rec. 10 a.m.) LONDON, Mar. 17. General Giraud's speech and his offer to confer and collaborate with General de Gaulle has given wide satisfaction. It is expected and hoped that a meeting between the two generals will eventuate, though at the moment nobody apparently is willing to forecast when it will be. The "Daily Telegraph" comments: "There is a definite prospect that the long-drawn-out preliminaries to effective union between all Frenchmen fighting against the Axis outside Europe are coming to a satisfactory close. In fairness to General Giraud, it must be pointed out that the duration of these preliminaries was inherent in the situation he found in North Africa." It adds that perhaps the long interval between the meeting at Casablanca and the meeting now in prospect has not been wholly wasted, for the slate on which the two generals will be able to write is cleaner.

The main difficulty of arranging a meeting between Generals Giraud and de Gaulle so far has been that General de Gaulle hitherto has coupled with such plans a demand that certain questions of principle should be settled first. General Giraud has already carried out or announced reforms which will go far to meeting the Fighting French demands. '■■ The withdrawal from office of M. Bergeret and M. Rigaud is regarded as a further step towards achieving identity of principles. ~