THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1942 FRANCE ON THE RACK

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24243, 8 April 1942, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1942 FRANCE ON THE RACK

The recent meeting of Petain and Laval, the report that they will meet again, the incessant clamour of the Nazi-controlled press of Paris for further Franco-German collaboration, all point to Hitler's determination to use France in his final blow for victory in 1912. For beaten as she is France still eludes him. He has starved her and robbed her, yet she still withholds from him two precious possessions, her navy and her North African colonies. Even the loyalty of these colonies has been poisoned by Hitler. Since Petain, unquestionably at Hitler's behest, last year dismissed General Weygand, German infiltration into Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Dakar has proceeded apace. The Arabs have been set against the French, the anti-British elements in the army have been encouraged, Germans have seized key positions, | supplies have passed through Tunisia to help General Rommel, and the petroleum so charitably supplied by the United States has been conserved for military purposes. The best French troops have been concentrated in Dakar and Senegal, where they can resist any Allied attack on West Africa and, when the moment is ripe, launch an assault on the Free French possessions. Yet in spite of all these things, French North Africa has not passed completely into Hitler's hands and one false step by Hitler or Petain might drive the 12 divisions once under General Weygand to the allegiance of General de Gaulle. Above all, the French Navy still refuses to fight for Hitler.

The most kindly view of Marshal Petain's policy is that ever since the fall of France he has fought a new battle of Verdun against the insistent demands of the Germans. Even his firmest admirers find difficult to explain the supine surrender of Indo-China to the Japan ese or the manufacture even in un occupied France of armaments for the conquerors. All the humilities and sufferings of France arise from the severity of the terms of the armistice which Petain concluded in breach of his country's obligations to Great Britain. Although he has given his word not to wage war against Britain or the United States, the very conditions of the German occupation force the French to give the most valuable assistance to the German war effort. The boundary between occupied and unoccupied France cuts the life lines of French economy. All that is most valuable in French industry now works in northern France for Hitler who, out of the millions extorted for the cost of the army of occupation, has bought a controlling interest with French money in the exploited factories. Worse still, Hitler, faithful to the policy of "Mein Kampf," has set out deliberately to destroy the French people, who are cold-bloodedly starved. It certainly says much for Petain that, in the face of this rapacious cruelty, he still retains the French Navy and still refuses to reinstate the infamous Laval. If one could forgive his original refusal to continue the fight in Africa and his betrayal of the Republic, his painful evasion of Hitler might provoke sympathy, if not praise, always providing that he does not eventually surrender.

Petain's future course of action must be influenced by his political philosophy. He is a reactionary and and an absolutist. Dislike of the excesses of the Third Republic is one thing; attempting to set the clock back to pre-Revolution days is quite another. Petain is typical of those Frenchmen whose first thought is the preservation of their property and who have always thought that Germany would save France from the menace of Communism. Thus they have become the tools of Hitler and their political survival depends upon his success. Like him they are the enemies of all democratic institutions. Thus Vichy has dissolved the French Trade Union Congress and imprisoned M. Leon Jouhaux, its resolute leader. Further, it has established a Labour Front, membership of which is compulsory and in which employers and employees will be regimented on the authentic Fascist pattern. The prelude to absolutism is the destruction of all forms of social organisation which are in any way rivals to the State. By such destruction Hitler became a dictator; Petain follows in his footsteps. But although Vichy has dissolved the centra] organisations of French unionism, union leaders continue regular meetings in which Socialist and Catholic federations join and from which Communists are generally cold-shouldered. Petain still has to respect the opinion of French labour, which loathes Hitler and all his works. Doubts of final German victory and pressure of public opinion may even yet deter Petain from finally passing into Hitler's camp.