GENERAL DE GAULLE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 127, 31 May 1944, Page 5

GENERAL DE GAULLE

IMPORTANCE OF LONDON VISIT

(Special P.A. Correspondent.) Rec. 9.30 a.m. LONDON, May 30.

Great importance is attached to the forthcoming visit of General de Gaulle to London.

One of the thorny problems of the coming attack on Europe is the question of the future administration of France. It is stated by a special correspondent of the "Observer" that General Eisenhower has received no policy direction on this matter and that his plans presumably are based on the assumption that there will be no Anglo-American Governmental agreement or directive. "The supreme commander has accepted the responsibility for the whole task of civil administration and laid down his line of aciion for his staff in soldiers' terms," says the correspondent, who adds that General Eisenhower's broad policy is "to work with anybody who will effectively oppose the enemy— Vichy men excepted." Conversations by General Eisenhower and Lt.-General Bedell Smith with the Free French General Joseph Koenig, he continues, were progressing satisfactorily until they were interrupted by a ban on coded diplomatic messages. Their resumption will now by facilitated by the visit of Genera] de Gaulle.

The diplomatic correspondent of "The Times" describes the forthcoming visit as "a chance to put the whole western alliance on a firmer basis." He says that if all goes well the part which resurgent France will play in the alliance and in the work of liberation will be arranged more clearly than before. The degree of actual authority which is to be given to the committee in France is still • being worked out. In all other agreements on civil administration which have been reached with the Governments of the oppressed countries, political recognition was given first, and such recognition provided the basis for subsequent military arrangements. In dealing with the French, the British and American Governments have been making a much more difficult and intricate approach. They have been seeking military agreements (covering civil administration) before giving political recognition to a French authority. The Algiers correspondent of "The Times" says that General de Gaulle will go to London as the head of a Government and not as a military leader. -