TORTURED FRANCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24166, 7 January 1942, Page 6

TORTURED FRANCE

Driven to desperation by the repressive measures of M. Pucheux, Minister for the Interior since last, July, some Frenchmen have turned on him and his assistant, one Paringault. There will be great disappointment throughout liberal France that Pucheux, a cruel Royalist reactionary, has escaped with his life. This man had boasted that he would restore order in France, if one Frenchman out of every ten had to be shot in the process. It is the curse of Marshal Petain that, while he attempts from time to time—witness his New Year speech—to withstand Hitler, he seeks to crush all the democratic elements among his countrymen who vainly seek leadership against the invader. Petain despises democracy. In July last M. Barthelemy, the Minister of Justice, affirmed that "the French State of

to-morrow will not be totalitarian—it will be authoritatarian, hierarchical and social." In plain words, it will be a dictatorship of a selfappointed elite. Petain and Darlan, assisted by Pucheux and his like, have sought to do business with Hitler, only to find that once the fatal initial step is taken it cannot be refracted. Part of the business was the return of many of the French prisoners of war. Only a few miserable thousands have been released. France is starved, her best and bravest are shot, and now she is asked to betray herself by delivering to a faithless conqueror her fleet and African possessions. The assassination of Paringault and the shootings in Paris may well be the signs that Hitler is pressing France for a right of way out of his straits in Europe. Germany still has great striking power and France is the avenue through which Hitler can drive to the raw materials and strategic advantages of Northern and Western Africa.