WASHINGTON AND VICHY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23968, 19 May 1941, Page 6

WASHINGTON AND VICHY

The serious view taken by President Roosevelt, of the relations between the Vichy Government. anil its German masters has been reaffirmed in measured terms by Mr. Cordell Hull. The United States, no less than Britain, grieves to spc the shame that has been brought upon the French nation in its hour of defeat and has not yet abandoned hope that the people of France, in Mr. Iloosevelt's words, will "still cherish the ideals of liberty and free institutions until the moment comes for their re establishment." lint sympathy with the French people in their sufferings has not blinded the United States to the danger of increasing German pressure on a French Government which apparently hopes to regain its independence by surrendering it piecemeal. Mr. Roosevelt has accordingly issued a blunt warning that collaboration by Vichy with Berlin beyond the "clear limitations'' imposed by the armistice involves a changing view of the extent to which French integrity is entitled fro respect. He has examined the possibility that the treachery of Syria might be repeated in the French colonies on

the West African coast —and few Americans can relish the prospect of German control of Dakar and Casablanca. It is not clear that the President's warning has influenced Vichy in its announcement that British attacks on German-occupied aerodromes in Syria will not be regarded as acts of aggression. What must be clear, however, to all Frenchmen, keen-minded as they are, is that the intrigues of proAxis puppets have made their country suspect in the eyes of the two great, democracies whose cause is their cause.