FREE FRENCHMEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24627, 7 June 1941, Page 10

FREE FRENCHMEN

BITTER ATTACK ON VICHY REPLY BY ACTING CONSUL MISERY OF A CONQUERED NATION (Air Mail) SYDNEY, May 20. Australians were made to feel the misery of France and realise how unhappily her people are divided by two statements published here this week. The Central Committee of the Free French Movement in Australia, in a manifesto, condemned the Vichy Government of France and reaffirmed its devotion and faith in the cause of democracy. "Valet of Hitler" "An illegal Government is threatening to cast eternal shame upon the people of France by co-operating with the enemy," the manifesto stated. "Among the cowardly traitors of that Government, the most prominent is Admiral Darlan, the despicable valet of Hitler and the servile instrument of German barbarism. But it must be understood that these men are not the true representatives of the people of France; they are only some of the Quislings that grow in every nation at the time of defeat to gain personal power and save their private interests. For them, the French people will have no mercy, and not one of their crimes will remain unpunished. "The real France is still gloriously represented at the side of the Allies on the battlefields by General de Gaulle and 50,000 men of the Free French Forces. We ask for faith in France, her people, and her destiny. The French and British share the same ideals. For what they know is right Frenchmen and Britons have fought side bv side in this war and in the last one. "France, betrayed, is lying, bound hands and feet, at the mercy of the enemy, and the moment would be badly chosen to look upon France with contempt. It is up to you, our Australian friends, to give understanding and sympathy to the people of France —to extend to them all possible help, to tell them to look up. for final victory is near." The Acting Consul-general for France, M. Charles Lancial, next day deprecated "savage attacks" on the Vichy Government. He asked Australians to consider the facts. The Syrian Question "It seems established," he said, "that German planes have landed at Syrian aerodromes on their way to Iraq. It has been stated that the French Government has given Germany permission to use those aerodromes, but there has been no proof of it. Admittedly, there have been negotiations between the French and German Governments, but we have no evidence that they have been associated with the developments in Syria, which are strategical consequences of the German victory in Greece. "The French Government is abused for not opposing the landing of the German aircraft, but what resistance could the French offer in Syria? The military correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald says that all observers agree that the French Army in Syria amounts to little more than a division, and he admits that France has no adequate force there to resist foreign pressure. It is clear that in those conditions resistance by the French in Syria would only mean useless slaughter and devastation by the powerful German Air Force. "I have read with sorrow a manifesto issued by a certain section of Frenchmen in Australia What right have those Frenchmen, living in a sheltered land, to insult the leaders of their country for not ordering sacrifices which they themselves have no thought of sharing?"