TO HUMILIATE FRANCE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 12 June 1945, Page 5

TO HUMILIATE FRANCE

“NOT A VERY GOOD INVESTMENT” DE GAULLE GIVES WARNING London, June 11 “It may not be a very good investment to humiliate France,” said General de Gaulle in a speech during a triumphal week-end tour of Normandy. It might not be fully realised that France would not always be in the rather difficult position she was occupying at present. Peace cannot be built without the agreement and cooperation of France. Those who deem it clever to endanger the unity of the Great Powers and may have taken advantage of the present circumstances to push their pawns on the world’s chess board, are badly mistaken and will see what happens.’ He warned of “the dreadful consequences of endangering the unity of the great nations which were indispensable to peace ’ General de Gaulle returned to Paris this morning after one of the most significant political successes of his career says the Paris correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain. The week-end tour, which was to have been a rou;ine inspection of devastated in Normandy, developed into a spectacular triumph. It strongly emphasised two facts. Firstly, he has gained rather than lost the confidence and backing of the people; and secondly, .the people apparently are in full agreement with his foreign policy, despite France’s humiliation in the Syrian dispute.