INTRIGUES BY DARLAN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 19 June 1941, Page 6

INTRIGUES BY DARLAN

; NEGOTIATIONS WITH BERLIN FRENCH AFRICAN POSSESSIONS PREVENTING C.S. INTERVENTION (Rcc. 1.40 p.m.* Rugby, June 18 Ad niral Daiian has opened further military conversations with Berlin with the object of devising joint FrancoGerman measures to prevent United states intervention against French African possessions or the seizure of Dakar. According to the French frontier correspondent of "The Times,” the Germans are reproaching \dmira: Darlan for allowing the British to for/st*!l the Axis in Syria and insisting that American intervention must be prevented at all costs. Meanwhile substantial quantities of material and a number of planes have been sent to Syria. Admiral Darlan is paying lipservice to the instructions of the Council of Ministers that the Syrian conf'.*ct should be localised, but actually now that General Weygand lias departled Admiral Darlan is manoeuvring in i exactly the opposite direction. Well-informed quarters in Vichy fear that unless a decision in Syria is reached within a fortnight Admiral Darlan will be able tj ensure intervention by the French fleet. The fact that most of the German planes formerly in Sicily are now massed in Tripolitania and along the Tunisian frontier indicated on trend of the FrancoGerman discussions. Vichy’s opponents I in France are not only keenly disappointed but anxious at the over-slow-ness of the Allied advance in Syria. Moreover, British broadcasts to France seem to suggest that Britain continues to underestimate the deadly nature of; Admiral Dalian’s intrigues. Friendly j Frenchmen insist that a British reverse j in Syria would irreparably affect Brit- ! ish prestige throughout France j 8.0. W.