France Wants Say In War Settlement

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 263, 5 November 1943, Page 4

France Wants Say In War Settlement

HALF A MILLION MEN WAIT TO STRIKE AT ENEMY Received Thursday, 7.45 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 4. “France thinks that any European settlement without her would not be a good settlement and has a deep feeling that failure to recognise her rights and dignity would, firstly, be an injustice and secondly, a mistake.” This was stated by General de Gaulle at the first meeting of France’s ghost Parliament —the Provisional Consultative Assembly, at which 47 of 84 members were pre sent, the absentees being in France or have not arrived. General de Gaulle said the Committee of National Liberation claimed the right to present with the great nations the solutions which she judged necessary for a war settle ment and the organisation of the postwar world. “She must resume her place with her great resources in the war. Half a million men wait impatiently to-day to measure their force against the enemy. French resistance is everywhere hitter and efficient. It exists in the factories, fields, offices, schools and streets. France to-morrow will ask that her national sovereignty shall be exercised entirely unhampered by intrigue or corrupt pressure or private institutions. France demands a regime in which production and industry are under the control of the people.” General Giraud throughout de Gaulle’s speech sat motionless, hut at the close applauded loudly with the Assembly, and shook hands with de Gaulle.