FRENCH ADMINISTRATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 September 1944, Page 6

FRENCH ADMINISTRATION

CABINET APPOINTMENTS

LONDON, September 10. Paris radio announced that General de Gaulle has reshuffled the French Cabinet, involving the fol lowing .new appomtments.--M nf Foreign Affairs, M. Georges di dalS ’ (President ol the National Committee of Resistance in France, M. Massigli); Minister of State M. Jules Jeanneney (a former President, of the Senate), Minister ot the Interior, M. Adnen Tixier (hitherto Minister ol &»ai Affairs, who replaces M. Dastier;. Minister of National Economy, M; Pierre Mendes-France _ (hitherto. Minister of Finance); Minister of Finance M. Lepereq; Minister of IgSfiS, M. Minister of Transport and Pubhc, Works, M. Rene Mayer (hitherto; Minister of Communications and Merchant Manne); Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, M. Auguste Laurent. 1 The following retain their former posts: Minister of War, M. Diethelm,■ Minister of Justice, M. Dementhon, Minister of the Navy, Admiral Jac-; auinot; Minister of Production, M. La Coste; Minister of Food, M. Giacobbi; Minister for Colonies, M. Pleven; -Minister of M. Capitant. Air Minister, M. Charles Tillon; Labour Minister, M. Alexandre Fardoi; Minister of Prisoners ot War, Deportees, and Refugees, M. Henri Frenay; Minister of North Africa, General Georges Catroux. Reuter comments that the cabinet consists of Radicals, Socialists, and Communists, with a number who lave proved outstanding members ot ihe resistance movement. DE GAULLE’S ORDER LONDON, September 11. Signs of a clash between the Pre- [ sident of the French Provisional GovI eminent (General de Gaulle) and the French Forces of the Interior are reported from Paris. The “Daily Mir■or” says: “General de Gaulle has -q’ven orders tending towards the dissolution of all the commanding organisations of the French Forces of the Interior and'their general staffs. In a strong protest against this attitude, the National Military Committee, which is one of the most important resistance groups, says: ‘The decision contradicts all prospects of a democratic renovation of Republican institutions.’ “The Provisional Government has also decided to disperse men attached ,o some units of the French Forces of the Interior. On this issue the Nalional Military Committee says: ‘The dispersion will mean that France and her Allies will lose many men who can play a useful part in the last phases of the battle.’ “A statement by General de Gaulle’s Government yesterday formally told the people of France that Marshal Petain’s ‘French State’ and its laws were abolished, and that France was to remain a Republic.” POWERFUL NAVY. LONDON, September 10. The Navy Minister (M. Jacquinot) said in Paris: “France at the end of the war will have a bigger sea force; than when she entered the war. The French Navy now consists of 3UOU officers and 50,000 men, with 300 war units, including the two Dreadnoughts Richelieu and Lorraine, and falso six modern cruisers, four light cruisers, about 100 torpedo-boats, 20 submarines, and a big force of aeroplanes, and four regiments ol marines, including one commando regiment.” TRIAL OF COLLABORATORS LONDON, September 10. A British United Press correspondent says: The French have established a military tribunal at Vichy, for the trial of collaborators with the Germans. About 800 have been arrested in Vichy so far. Most of the minor officials of the former Vichy Government are, however, expected to be vindicated as honest men who lid iheir best in the difficult situation. Most of the major Vichyites .lave fled. Marshal Petain tried to ;ur;ender to the French Forces in the Interior, at the last minute, before ‘.he Germans took him away, but he was just too late. WODEHOUSE’S EXPLANATION LONDON, September 10. The English novelist, Mr P. G. Wodehouse, was interviewed in the Bristol Hotel, Paris, where he and his wife have been living for a year. He said: “My speaking over the German radio, wrong as it may have been, was my own idea of talking to my friends and letting them know that I was well, and of acknowledging letters and parcels from those hopeful of seeking my release. My talks were • mostly comical. The Germans never asked me to broadcast or suggested what I should say. After considerable pleading, the Gestapo gave me permission to return to Paris, where I continued writing, while reporting to the Gestapo headquarters every week.” Mr Wodehouse said that all of the stories about him living a life of luxury at the Adlon Hotel in Berlin were lies. He had spent three days there, under a Gestapo guard. He had been released in the regular manner, after a year in an internment camp, like numerous other British prisoners of his age. After his release, he and his wife lived in the country most of the time, on borrowed money and on the proceeds of sales of his wife’s jewellery.