ALLIED RELATIONS

Grey River Argus, 21 October 1943, Page 5

ALLIED RELATIONS

FRANCE’S NEW ROLE May be Intermediary (Rec. 9.0) NEW YORK. Oct. 19. The Algiers correspondent of the New York “Times” says: General de Gaulle and M. Messigle conferred with Senator Hull and Mr A. Eden when the latter were en route for Moscow, thus giving an unmistakeable implication that French views would be available at the Moscow conferences. A spokesman of the French Committee of Liberation. North Africa, indicated that the committee had now reached substantial unanimity, ■ which Will be a guide for an indefinite period in future dealings with the Allies. Although the French Committee has not yet been officially informed of its status in the forthcoming convening of political and military commissions, British and French circles assume that the French Committee will be an equal partner with Britain, Russia and the United States. French plans seem to be based on the maintaining of the closest possible relations with all three of the major Powers, rather than with one or two. Fortified by their Coi;sician victory, the French are functioning more and more with a view to a triumphant return by General de Gaulle and his aides to France. There is already an extremely strong link between the French Committee and Russia. The British, probably, do not want to see France too closely allied with Russia. The British will-probably prefer to work closely with both. The United States and France are sure to become close, despite the possible resurgence of the isolation movement in the United States, which resurgence, a'ccording to one observer, is likely to be directed more at Britain than at any other nation. If so, France will act, as the best link between America and the Old World, including Russia. The French are perfectly aware of the die-hard conservative feeling both in Britain and America against Russia, and they See a vital role for themselves, not as a mediator, but as an intermediary, between Russia and the two English-speaking nations.