BLOCKADE OF FRANCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 90, 15 March 1941, Page 8

BLOCKADE OF FRANCE

PROBLEMS OF RELAXATION.

(United Press Association —Copyright) (British Official Wireless.) (Ilec. 12.40 p.m.) R JGI3Y, March 14. In the United States ; as in Britain, consideration is given in the Press to the question whether, without, weakening the effectiveness of Britain's blockade, some relaxation should, he permitted to improve the food position in Unoccupied Prance. New York: reports conversations yesterday be-; tween representatives of the State Department and the American Bed Cross and officials of the British Embassy oh the possibilities of carrying vital supplies to French children. There is growing evidence of appreciation in. the United " States of tho difficulties of translating into action sympathy with the peopie of Unoccupied Prance who, it is recognised, are buffering primarily from the effects of the wholesale spoliation and looting by the Germane. The difficulties of the immediate problem are increased owing to the readiness shown by the Vichy Government to collaborate with their oppressors, iaud exposure of, whose policy of starving Prance and putting the blame on the British Uockaue is how complete. Admiral Darlan's threat to use the French navy to convoy supplies is clearly of German inspiration, its purpose .being to cause a clash between the British and Prench navies. The German control of the Vichy Government is now widely recognised. Writing in the Daily Expiess, a Prench journalist, Andre Bertoux, who strongly argues against lifting the blockade, says that Prench people noticed that Admiral Darlan's statement was made immediately after a Vichy Cabinet meeting and that the statement was mentioned by Admiral Darl&n as the outcome of that meeting, but they were not slow in noticing that his statement was anticipated the previous day by the Nazi-controlled Radio Paris while Admiral Darlan was actually travelling from Paris to Vichy and a few hours after he had talked with Herr Abetz (Nazi Ambassador) and:-Count de Brinon (Vichy Ambassador in Paris). M. Bertoux comments: "A fine Cabinet meeting, indeed, whose decisions ran be announced 24 hours in advance bv a foreign Power!" -' Meanwhile, the German propaganda against the blockade has increasingly become particularly active, and with - all the acope of the Press and radio under German control unsuspecting persons, are apt to make this inspired propaganda from the occupied territories as an expression of the true voice of their people. One noticeable feature is that every concession, however slight, towards the relaxation of the blockade has heen followed by an immediate intensification of the a-nti-Wockade propaganda. STARVATION PLEA.

Thus the limited concession granted to the passage of the steamship* Coldharbour and Exmouth, tar from being regarded as a gesture of goodwill to Unoccupied Prance,' has been seized upon as a sign of weakness, and the starvation plea since has been exploited to the full to serve the dual purpose of relieving Germany of some oi her immediate " food \ anxieties and distracting attention from the continued intensified system of German looting and other forms of exploitation of the occupied territories. The Spectator, discussing Admiral Darlan's threat, says the practibility of lifting the blockade raises important technical questions and calls for a careful and unemotional examination of them. ; The journal New Statesman says it is certain that of the supplies which Britain now allows to enter Marseilles more than half have already been sent to Germany. It favours a counter to the propaganda that comes through Admiral l>arlan's mouth by a request for his specific proposals and suggests a statement on behalf of the British Government of its" readiness to discuss all practical matters in consultation with the Governments of France and. the United States. It is, however, emphatically declared in all quarters that the effectiveness of the blockade must not be permitted to 6uffer. Comment of the Vichy correspondent of the Zuricher Zeitung adds weight to these opinions. The correspondent states: "The economic situation in Prance in respect of wheat'and grain is very serious, and it can, therefore, be understood that Vichy should contemplate extraordinary measures. But, on the other band, the French point of view is not quite correct, as supplies of grain which might reach the Fiench ports in the Mediterranean despite the British blockade would only partly go to the benefit of France."