THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, June 18, 1940. FRANCE CAPITULATES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24327, 18 June 1940, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, June 18, 1940. FRANCE CAPITULATES

Bruised and exhausted, France lies prostrate at the feet of the aggressor. Any hopes which the formation of a Government under military leaders might have excited that she would continue her resistance have been dashed to the ground. The decision has been reached that our brave Ally cannot persevere in the unequal conflict in which, with British assistance, she has been engaged. Marshal Petain has issued the announcement that she cannot maintain the struggle. He has in effect sought peace from Germany. It will have been only under a sense of urgent necessity that he has arrived at the conclusion that a step so fateful as this should be taken. Deep as must be the concern which the capitulation of France will excite in the free nations of the world, there can be nothing but admiration for the gallantry and heroism which the French soldiers have shown in a battle continued, with little intermission, throughout the past few weeks —a battle in which they have all along been outnumbered and in which the enemy has enjoyed an overwhelming advantage in equipment of all descriptions. The French Army must have suffered enormous losses. And battered and wearied as, it has been, there cannot be much occasion for surprise that it became dispirited and that its morale was destroyed. The precipitancy of the capitulation, coming almost immediately after a Government had been formed which was predominantly military in character, must prove disconcerting to those who read this tragic news to-day. It can only be surmised that the Government of Marshal Petain, having regard to the increasingly ominous developments in the German offensive, and with precise knowledge of the limits to which the magnificent endurance of the French armies had been strained, decided that to fight on was hopeless, Combined with the inexorable pressure of the Nazi forces along the entire west to east front, the crumbling of the Maginot Line, that proud but, in the event, futile bulwark against the foe across the Rhine, must have set awry all calculations as to the continued capacity of France to fight a retiring action against superior forces. The inability of the French armies to establish a line which might be held had necessitated a succession of orderly withdrawals that, in the nature of modern warfare, might have developed into headlong retreat. With the flank of his gallant forces' threatened, MarsHaT 1 Petain was no longer prepared to subject them to a merciless assault from which the only emergence could be in death. It was perhaps inevitable, but it is at the saptie; time deeply to be regretted, that the necessities of the case appear to have forced the Government of France to reach its fateful decision so speedily. If there was consultation with the British Government in the final hours prior to the order to cease fighting’being given, it must have been of a hurried nature. The undertaking between the two Allies that neither should conclude a separate peace with the enemy has been overridden by a military situation beyond redeeming. A great deal must depend now on the terms of the peace which Germany dictates to France. The extent of the humiliation which is to be inflicted upon a great nation can only be conjectured, but it is certain that a sorry price will be exacted by the Nazi conquerors. But whatever the effects of the French collapse may be, this much is certain—the Empire, though it fights alone, must fight on. The moment of supreme resolve has come for the British peoples. The invasion of the British Isles, no longer to be regarded as an impossibility, must be anticipated with high courage and fortitude. The dominions and colonies, and to an extent that could not have been asked or expected a few months ago, the United States, must be prepared to extend their resources to Great Britain in the ordeal to come. We must, as Mr Churchill has said, “go on,” pledged to spend the last ounce in a war on which depends the fate of the British Empire, of democracy in the world. The struggle between the forces of outlawry and order has entered its crucial stage. No modern nation which holds command of the seas has ever suffered, ultimate defeat. The will and the resources of the British people remain unaffected by the blow to the Ally. These are considerations which permit the future to be faced with courage and confidence. It is an old and tried maxim which says that in any war Great Britain wins decisively only one battle—the last.