THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1940 SIGNS OF FREE FRENCH ZEAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23767, 21 September 1940, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1940 SIGNS OF FREE FRENCH ZEAL

At a time when Italy is developing a strong movement against Egypt, it is encouraging to learn that events in North Africa and the Near East have taken a direction hostile to Italian plans. None of these events, viewed separately, can be regarded as gravely inimical to, those plans, although in some instances there is indicated a positive interj ference with them; yet together i these events, happening at a critical moment, amount at least to a very broad hint that the Axis Powers are not to have things all their own way !in the Mediterranean and North J African field of their ambitions. With the Axis Powers must be coupled, when considering this field, the Vichy Government of France, which must do Hitler's bidding. First, then, of the events now to be noted as significant of weakness in the enemy's position, is the marked growth in North Africa of sympathy with the Free French cause headed by General de Gaulle: the newlyappointed French Resident-General of this region is experiencing great difficulty in handling the situation that occasioned his appointment. He has felt himself obliged to make wholesale arrests of army officers and civil servants, in the face of popular as well as military opposition. No widespread revolt against him and his superiors may be imminent, but it is quite enough to know ""that his task is not at all easy, and that reports reaching Madrid through America indicate a tense expectancy of acceptance, throughout French North Africa, of Britain's offer of protection. The stand taken in the Chad Territory appears to be exercising an ever widening influence, to the chagrin of Italy. s That this spreading infection is not' confined to mere thought or desire is evident from the fact that a Free French air force is co-operat-ing with British flying squadrons in East African operations against Italy. Another notable feature of the gathering of the -Free French clans against the Axis Powers is the arrival in Britain of two highlyplaced but superseded commanders hitherto stationed in Morocco. No doubt they will prove of valuable assistance to General de Gaulle in his direction of the North African campaign. A wish that this may be so is, perhaps, too readily cherished in the absence of detailed information, but the deliberate action of these two cannot be dismissed as unimportant. Of favourable indications in the Syrian army of France no such hesitant opinion need be expressed. There Italian agents have been active in endeavouring to sow disaffection, and to-day it is circumstantially learned that .they have met with severe rebuffs. With j the connivance of the two senior French delegates on the Armistice Commission that Hitler forced upon the Vichy Government, these Italian agents have been preparing to rol> the French Syrian army of much of its equipment, for use by the Italian forces now marching on Egypt; but this impudent move has been resisted in no' uncertain fashion. It would have been a serious thing if guns, tanks, ammunition, lorries and aeroplanes, to say nothing of various small-arms, 1 had been filched for this purpose, and if, in the process, technical experts and others of all ranks had been persuaded to desert to Italy. This has been the obvious intention. In the-yet indefinite position of French Syria, held under mandate, "a delicate and dangerous problem" would indeed be created should the Italian interference succeed. Italy has no shadow of right to behave in this way; even the attempt is a grave contravention of the mandate. Neither Hitler nor Mussolini would be troubled by this aspect of the ihatter, for both have long since repudiated all obligation to assist in seeing that the League's Mandates Commission makes its right of surveillance effective; and possibly a successful theft of this ugly sort would win Hitler's pleased approval as another great Italian victory. However, if the stout resistance offered by the French regulars is carried to extremes, the move will be completely countered. This opposition is now to be numbered among the signs of a growing allegiance to General de Gaulle, in spite of the riski; run. At any rate, such signs must give the Fuehrer and the Duce good reason for more furious thinking. Their expert in clandestine negotiation, Ribbentrop, has been conferring in Rome with Mussolini and Ciano. It is a safe guess that the making of trouble in Syria has been again discussed by these three, and that the likelihood of Free French upsetting of this particular scheme has given them no pleasure.