FRENCH RIVALRIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 June 1943, Page 5

FRENCH RIVALRIES

ARMY OFFICERS’ POSITION

WHERE DE GAULLE FAILS

RUGBY, June 13.

“Algiers messages report that members of the French Committee of National Liberation are working to solve the controversy between General de Gaulle and General Giraud -joint presidents of the committee, b T, er army reform. Differences arose over methods of carrying out reorganisation and the proposed elimination of untrustworthy elements. The problems are connected with the unsolved questions of who should be Commander-in-Chief and who Commissioner for Defence. “Correspondents report that General de Gaulle regards himself as laced by the same insufficiently .progressive spirit as prevailed in the General Staff before the French defeat. General Giraud and General Georges, on the other hand, are reluctant to see many fellow officers dismissed and the Army revolutionised at a critical moment of French history. Their supporters doubt whether changes which proved suitable for the comparatively small Fighting French forces should be applied with the wholesale rapidity on which General de Gaulle is believed to insist, even to the point of offering his resignation. “In London it is recalled that the present differences appear less serious than those which were overcome to unite the two French movements in one national committee, and hopes are therefore maintained that a solution will be found by agreement, and 1 hat the leaders will not act in a manner which might delay a solution and prejudice the common cause. The greatest sympathy and admiration has always been, and is, felt in Britain for General de Gaulle, but nevertheless it must be recorded that Us actions have by no means always commended themselves to those in responsible positions. General de Gaulle is a man of brilliant talents, but not the ideal leader of a movement which by its very nature is and must be democratic. His is a personality which with difficulty adjusts itself harmoniously to combined enterprise. , “Evidently the French leaders feel strongly on important problems. It is felt very strongly in London, however, that no difference between the Allies in an important war area should be allowed to imperil either the French unity so hardly established or the solidarity of the United Nations themselves. Certainly no countenance would be given to any idea that either leader could find support in any particular Allied country.”

TENSION LESS

LONDON, June 13

The tension between the de Gaullists and the Giraudists appears to have relaxed somewhat, according to i eports from Algiers. The newspapers publish an agreed statement from six members of the French Committee of National Liberation, indicating that General de Gaulle’s demand for a purge ol Petanist commanding officers has been accepted.

STRICT CENSORSHIP

LONDON, June 13

There has been no further meeting between de Gaulle and Giraucl, Though both have been in contact with other members of the French Committee of National Liberation, particularly Catroux. Three additional members of the Committee arrived in Algiers from London. They are Pleven, Dietholm, and Tixier. Another member, Bonnet, is on the way from America. Twenty Communist Deputies released from prison, issued a statement expressing uneasiness concerning the deadlock. “France wants deeds, the French people have had enough of personal power, autocracy and tyranny. They no longer want a fuehrer. They want a republic—a ’rejuvenated, better constructed and more democratic republic. For the good name of France it is essential to translate immediately into deeds, ■he solemn promises made by the Committee.”

Reuter’s Algiers correspondent says it is difficult for the outer world to realise Algiers’ seclusion. It must be remembered that the Algiers uublic are generally entirely ignorant of world opinion. The atmosphere resembles the complacency in which France lived early in 1940. The Press censorship to which is attributed much of the blame for the downfall of France continues at Algiers. Blank spaces in the newspapers filled up with drawings. The censors, who are often the same as under the Vichy regime, continue to fellow the same principles. Not a line of world Press comment on the present deadlock has been allowed m appear in the local Press, and not a single despatch, sent by British and American correspondents is reproduced in Algiers. The public lives in a news vacuum, and has no idea of the feeling aroused abroad by Vichy’s subservience to Hitler. One unsatisfactory feature of the present position is that as far as can be ascertained no sanctions have been taken against men who are already in their positions because of anti-Allied activities. They have apparently returned to the army, and continue to draw pay. Bergaret, who was relieved of his command as a result of anti-Allied activities, draws nay as a general. Peyrouton has asked to rejoin the army as captain. No one raised objections. EX-MINISTER INTERNED LONDON, June 12. “The Times’s” correspondent on the German frontier says: General De Gaulle’s brother, who is a director of a large Paris banking firm, has been arrested and deported to Germany as a hostage. Algiers radio says: M. Pucheux, former Vichy Minister of the Interior, and collaborator of Laval, who escaped to North Africa after the landing of the Allies, is being held in an internment camp. No reason for his detention is given.