Earlier Messages

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 115, 16 May 1941, Page 7

Earlier Messages

VICHY ACCEPTS HITLBR-DAKLAN PACT LONDON, May 14. France has agreed to further collaboration with Germany in return, for the recent concessions made by Hitler. According to a report issued by the Vichy News Agency, the German demands have been accepted, but the terms have not been disclosed. It is stated, however, that “the effect of the latest 1 negotiations will soon be felt. ’' It is officially announced in Vichy that the Cabinet decision approving Hitler’s requirements was unanimous.

This decision by the Vichy Government follows a visit paid to Hitler by Admiral Darlan, the French VicePremier, earlier this week. General Keitel, head of the Supreme Command of the German armed forces, is stated to have been present at the meeting.

The Vichy correspondent of tne associated Press says that the French Cabinets decision will prove a fateful act. Details of Hitler’s terms are still not revealed, but some quarters are of the opinion that they amount to cooperation with the Axis in a plan designed to keep the United States out of the war.

It is reported that Admiral Leahy, the United States Ambassador, yesterday warned Marshal Petain against supplying Germany with military aid, The report says that the warning was given during a 60-minute conference before Admiral ‘Darlan returned from his visit to Hitler.

Diplomatic circles in Vichy believe that Darlan secured, from Hitler an arrangement replacing the armistice which would liberate Paris and give the Vichy Government four-fifths of France but would retain for Germany the coal and iron mines and all the ports of tue north and west coasts and all the rivermouths.

When questioned in tne House 01 Commons to-day regarding the French Government’s policy, the British Foreign Minister, Mr Eden, answered: “The policy which has been adopted and declared by France is collaboration with Germany within certain limits, which have not, so far as I am aware, been clearly defined. “The agreement with Germany made on May 5 provides, according to an official announcement issued at Vichy, for the alleviation of restrictive measures regarding the line of demarcation between occupied and unoccupied France and for a reduction in the costs of occupation from 400-million to 300million francs a day,” Mr Eden added.

“The line of demarcation would, according to the communique, be open generally for the passage of goods between the two zones and a»so for persons in the case of serious illness of near relatives. The dispatch of plain postcards from one zone to the other also would be authorised, and soldiers and airmen would be allowed to pass from one zone to the other under conditions which hitherto have applied to sailors only. “No official announcement was made regarding what may have been conceded by France in return for these so-called concessions/’ the Minister pointed out, “but the agreement was described in Vichy as a new step along the path of collaboration. ( “Whatever concessions Admiral Darlan may have agreed to, I find it hard to believe that the French people, helpless though they may be to prevent the systematic spoliation ol their resources, will be so false to <Jheir noble traditions as to work actively,.of their own free will, for the Getsian cause and thus prolong the perk'd of their own sufferings and postpone the day qf their own liberation.”