FREE FRENCH AGENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24950, 24 June 1942, Page 4

FREE FRENCH AGENT

,—<s> ARRIVAL IN DOMINION ADVENTURE AND DANGER An energetic supporter of the cause of Free France, M. Antoine de la Tribouille, who was an official of the colonial administration of Equatorial Africa at the time of the collapse of France, worked successfully there for General de Gaulle, and was later sent on a mission to the French possessions in the Pacific, has arrived in New Zealand to confer with officials at Wellington. He is accompanied by Madame de la Tribouille. Much of M. de la Tribouille's operations since the fall of France must remain secret, but it can be said that in the early days of the de Gaulle movement he led an adventurous and a dangerous life. Hotbed of Intrigue Under instructions from Free French headquarters, M. de la Tribouille accepted a position under Vichy auspices as Consul at the Spanish island of Fernando Po, which lies in the Bight of Biafra. adjacent to the coasts of French Equatorial Africa and the French mandated Cameroons, which had declared for General de Gaulle. Spanish sympathy' was entirely with the Vichy regime. In this hotbed of intrigue M. de la Tribouille maintained a precarious position for some months, but eventually he had to make a hasty departure, and he and his wife arrived at Calabar, in British Nigeria, penniless and with only what they stood up in. British officials, whom they found most anxious to do everything possible for them, solved their immediate difficulties, and M. de la Tribouille was subsequently appointed to the administration of the Cameroons. Stand With United Nations The situation in the Free French African territories was excellent, both politically and economically, said M. de la Tribouille, and for the maintenance of a satisfactory trading situation they were much indebted to British cooperation. The Free French military forces were naturally not large, but they were well equipped, and very strong in their determination to stand with the United Nations until victory was achieved. From the Cameroons, M. die la Tribouille was despatched on a mission to the French possessions in the Pacific which have since declared for General de Gaulle. Last year he made a brief trip to New Zealand, which he describes as the most beautiful country he has seen, and the visitors expressed warm appreciation of the helpfulness and hospitality with which they had been met here. Madame de la Tribouille, who was born in Savoie, is anxious to visit the South Island, where she thinks that the- mountain scenery, of which she has seen photographs, must much resemble that of her native land.