THE FREE FRENCH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24773, 25 November 1941, Page 8

THE FREE FRENCH

ANOTHER GENERAL JOINING TIRED OF VICHY'S INTRIGUE "UNITY 'ABSURD FTCnON" Free French headquarters announce that General Qdic. who was appointed Chief of Staff of the French Air Force after the armistice and who subsequently went to the United States, has now joined General de Gaulle. In a statement at Washington, in which he stated Vichy wished to hand over North Africa to the Germans. General Odic "said; "After the armistice I had hoped it would:still be possible to follow Vichy's policy with dignity. The maintenance of the Empire's integrity was a reason for ..a union of all Frenchmen, but if this unity could be accepted under sufferance it could not be accepted in abjection, I have often thought of regaining ' my-freedom, but I was still held by thfrihope of being able to preserve the integrity of North Africa. But to-day unity becomes absurd fiction when it is used to destroy that which is its reai aim. "After the Syrian betrayal Vichy now desires to hand over North Africa to the Germans. All our colonies in that« region are threatened with German, occupation, with the added humiliation that Frenchmen are asked to co-operate with the Germans in their plans. General Weygand has resigned, sndfthe time has come for everybody to decide. France must not be obliged one day to pay for Vichy's intrigueFrance must not sit beside Germany on the bench of the accused. France must take her place among the judges. That is what Frenchmen think, to-day but Vichy prefers civil war under the protection of the enemy. Under those conditions passive disapproval is not enough. French unity can be affirmed only- through Free France. Under the command of General de Gaulle I now resume the fight."