Darlan Loses Caste With French Navy

Northern Advocate, 4 September 1941, Page 5

Darlan Loses Caste With French Navy

. LONDON, September 3. The dismissal of Admiral Leluc last Monday is the first outward sign that the French navy is no longer solidly l behind Darlan, says Eustace Wareing, a correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” Even as old and trusted a colleague as Leluc finds it impossible to take part in what appears to be the next step in the Franco-German collaboration. German demands for the use of Bizerta, in Tunisia, are believed to have inspired Leluc to adopt an attitude which made his dismissal inevitable. He is one of the few men who know what secret instructions have been given to the French fleet for certain eventualities. Supplies For Africa British interference with Tripoli, which is 320 miles by sea from Sicily, is so great that the problem of supplies for the African forces is urgent. If Hitler should be obliged to withdraw from Libya he would j meet similar difficulties in the opposite direction, and for this reason is aiming- to switch his sea route to the narrower channel from the western tip of Sicily to the eastern tip of Tunisia, which is about 120 miles. Darlan cannot, on his own account, make such an important decision, one which Weygand opposes and Petain hopes to stave off. The French people will interpret Leluc's dismissal as a warning signal. A famous French soldier, General de la Laurencie. is reported to have been arrested for publicly stating his faith in a British victory, says the Lisbon correspondent of the “Daily Express.”