Petain’s Pathetic Surrender

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 192, 14 August 1941, Page 5

Petain’s Pathetic Surrender

Received Wednesday, 9.20 p.m. RUGBY, Aug. 12.

Although no official comment is available on tne Detain broadcast on Tuesday night, it is felt iu well-informed political circles that Berliu pressure is obtaining its customary results. Retain says France can only be governed from Paris, where he will return as soon as circumstances permit—in fact as soon as Hitler permits after his terms have been accepted. Petain suggests, however, that even if Paris is regained as their capital, tho times are difficult as authority is being disobeyed and appeals are being made to further indiscipline. “London radio is a very bad influence," says Petain, admitting that the population generally is not in favour of surrender to tho Nazis, and ho is blaming France’s former ally for the independence of his own compatriot. Regarding the United States, he declared that parliamentarians had nothing in common with American democracy—the pathetic truth of the Vichy Government is that it has forgotten the traditional bond of friendship between the freedom-loving lands of Washington and Lafayette.

Tho most revealing part of the broadcast was Petain's outline of the plans for the reconstruction of France, details of which follow closely the line of a Fascist corporate State. So Franco links herself in a special way with each Axis partner. She obeys Germany’s orders; she accepts Japanese “protection" for Indo-Chimt; and she imitates the social organisation of Italy. American democracy is certainly a long distance away.