Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 1941 VICHY THREATENED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 4 August 1941, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 1941 VICHY THREATENED

ONCE again the Vichy Government is being brow-beaten by Germany. What the demands are this time is not yet plain but Marshal Petain’s inner Cabinet has been in session to consider what unconfirmed reports describe as an ultimatum from Hitler. It is said that German control of French naval bases, including Dakar, is being asked for;! also that Laval shall return to the Vichy Cabinet. Failure to grant; these demands, a report from New York states, will mean that relations : | between France and Germany willj i revert to those between conquered ! and conqueror. Marshal Petain, j Admiral Darlan and General Wey- ; gand are said to have rejected these ! demands and the time for compliance with them is believed to have expired. Along with this comes the suggestion that the Cagoulards, a 1 French secret society with pro- j nounced Nazi sympathies, may be j used to engineer a coup d’etat against i the men of Vichy. The leader. Gen- ' eral de l’Oncle, was supposed to be; raising a force of volunteers to fight' against the Russians but some obser- | vers believe these would form the [ nucleus of a pro-Nazi revolutionary! movement in France to bring the' ; whole of the French Empire and its! resources over to the side of Hitler. 1 About some of these developments i there is agreement from various; quarters though they lack confir- i mation. It is clear, however, that* something far-reaching and distasteful is being asked for when even Admiral Darlan will not give way. Hitler has long been hankering after the French bases in north-west Africa, both as a means of getting a stranglehold over the Mediterranean and as places from which to prey further on British shipping in the At- i lanlic. For this last purpose Dakar would be of great use to him and the; familiar Nazi technique is popping j up again. The German-controlled j Paris radio has said that the United ! States has designs on this part of the ! French Empire. Therefore, following] a line so often pursued, Germany ap- j parently is demanding that she take' it under her “protection.” It docs j not appear, however, that Vichy has j been able to swallow this last bitter, Nazi pill. One report says that General Huntziger, one of the few men! of Vichy in whom the people of! France trust, and the French repre-; sentative who negotiated the arm is-! tice last year is to be given a greater | voice in the councils of stricken j France. Meantime Vichy is falling foul of the United States over its complete submission to Japan in Indo-China. In this it has broken repeated assurances given to the United States that it would defend the territories under its control against aggression by third Powers. Yet Mr Sumner Welles, President Roosevelt’s Assistant Secretary of State, has received I details of the agreement between I France and Japan showing that Indo- | China has been virtually transferred | to Japan as a possession of her EmI pire. He adds that this definitely j menaces American security and has : warned Vichy accordingly. Further concrete evidence of the ! degree to which Vichy has been subl ject to the Nazi will is provided by i documents which have been found ! in the archives of the French High Command in Syria by the Free French. They reveal that Berlin and Tokio have been working hand-in-glove to gain control of Indo-China. Moreover, while the Axis Armistice Commissions allowed reinforcements of men and material to go from France to the different parts of the 5 j French African Empire, none was j ever permitted to go to Indo-China. . These refusals date back to the be--1 I ginning of this year, thus showing 7 [ that tiie grabbing ot Indo-China by

i the Tripartite pact partners lias been j contemplated for some time. ! Strong words from the United ! States may have helped Vichy to make up its mind over the latest series of German demands designed to dismember further the French Empire, if, indeed, Vichy has stood firm on this occasion. This is by no means certain because it has become very difficult to know what is going on behind the scenes in France. If Germany is resisted even after Vichy has marched so far with her in collaboration every possible encouragement will come from the democracies. Should it prove that places like Dakar are in danger of falling into Nazi hands, then the United States will have something to say about it as well as Britain. In German control of Dakar there lies a threat to American security just as serious as Japanese domination in Indo-China.