FRENCH SOMALILAND

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 April 1941, Page 7

FRENCH SOMALILAND

FREE FORCE ATTACK ?

DJIBOUTI OBJECTIVE

[BY CABLE. —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.]

(Recd. April 29, 11.55 a.m.) VICHY, April 28. Official advice has been received from Djibouti, that a de Gaulle column, supported by British’motorised forces, attacked French Somaliland from Daouanleh, on the Addis Aba-ba-Djibouti railway. Earlier, the Vichy Government announced that de Gaulle troops, supported by British mechanised units, were massed along the southern border of French Somaliland. The Ministry for the Colonies had given the necessary instructions to the Governor of French Somaliland, to prevent the colony going over to de Gaulle. It added that Free French troops are concentrated at a point on the Djibouti-Addis Ababa railway. Other forces disembarked at Zeila. The Free French forces distributed pamphlets by aeroplane over all military posts in the interior of French Somaliland, calling on the troops to go to Daoualeh or Zeila, with their arms. The Vichy News Agency says: Although negotiation is possible regarding the transport of food and the evacuation of wounded along the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway, there can be no question of French Somaliland negotiating with the dissident French.

REPORT DISCREDITED.

RUGBY, April 28.

The headquarters of the Free French forces in London states it has no knowledge of attacks which, according to rumours circulated by Vichy, are being made by the Free French, supported by British units, against the French colony at Djibouti. It suggests that this information should be viewed with the greatest reserve, as it has every appearance of being news of a spontaneous movement in the midst of the French garrison itself at Djibouti, which, together with the civil population, it is known, for a long time have cherished a very favourable feeling towards Free France.

The statement recalls that following the Armistice, Djibouti was one of the first French possessions to send out a call for continued resistance.

DIEPPE FINED

(Recd. April 29, 1.50 p.m.) LONDON, April 28.

The Germans have fined Dieppe £60,000, bicause a cinema audience greeted a film showing the Italian and German air forces with shouts of “Down with Hitler and Mussolini!” The Dieppe municipality have been ordered to provide a compulsory watch on their telephone and telegraph lines, because sabotage's prevalent.