FRENCH PROBLEM

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21009, 4 February 1943, Page 4

FRENCH PROBLEM

POLITICS IN AFRICA MR. EDEN’S EXPLANATION “EVERY CO-OPERATION" (10 a.m.) LONDON, Feb. 3. Replying to a auestion in the House of Commons, the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Anthony Eden, said that as North Africa was French territory the administration there rested upon Frenchmen, and the first interests oi the United Kingdom and United States was to see that everything possible was done by that French administration to promote the Allied war effort in North Africa. The Allied commander-in-chief, General D. D. Eisenhower, was receiving every co-operation from the French administration and the troops under General Giraud were playing a full part in the fighting in Tunisia. The problem of -administering, a .territory with a mixed population and with a war in progress-was not an easy one, nor was it easy to adapt for war purposes the administration jot a territory which had been out of the war for two and a- half years. ‘General Giraud had said that thei;e was only one political test to 1 ke applied. in North Africa and that' was that, whoever the individual might be or whatever his political views, he should, he prepared to fight and work against the common enemy. The wav had been made clear for a reconciliation between the French and while much remained to be done they should realise that there were problems that could best be solved by Frenchmen, added Mr. Eden.