FRENCH CABINET

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20572, 4 June 1941, Page 5

FRENCH CABINET

DEMANDS OF AXIS DARLAN VERSUS PETAIN Elec. Tel. Copyright— United Press Assn.) (Reed. June 4. 11 a.m.) LONDON, June 3. A meeting of the French Cabinet to-day is described in some quarters as being the most vital since that at which an armistice was agreed to. General Weygand, delegate-general in North Africa, is attending.

The Times says that Admiral Darlan is negotiating a Franco-German agreement which will approximate to a peace treaty or treaty of friendship, stabilising the German-occupied and German-controlled areas, and opening naval stations at Dakar, Casablanca, Algiers, Villefrance, Sete, and Beirut foy common German and French use. V

This clause will lessen the German demand for the French fleet. French heavy factories, also, will become part of the German plan for war production.

The Daily Mail’s Madrid correspondent says that Admiral Darlan is using the press and radio in both occupied and unoccupied France in an effort to swing French public opinion behind his policy of undeclared war on Britain, instancing Crete as a demonstration that Britain is bound to lose.

Admiral Darlan is also persistently campaigning against the United States and the U.S. Ambassador, Admiral W. D. Leahy, personally, because he is reminding France of the dangers of the path which she is following. The situation is so tense even in the unoccupied zone that numbers of Americans are going to Lisbon. The vital decision must be made within 24 hours. The question is whether Marshal Petain has the strength or courage to put the brake on Admiral Darlan’s policy. General Weygand has arrived at Vichy from Algiers and conferred with Marshal Petain.