DESIRE FOR UNITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25176, 17 March 1943, Page 3

DESIRE FOR UNITY

GIRAUD’S DECLARATION MESSAGE TO FIGHTING FRENCH (Rec. 7 p.m.) RUGBY, Mar. 15. General Giraud to-night sent a message, which was broadcast by the Algiers radio, to General Catroux, General de Gaulle's representative, expressing his readiness to meet General de Gaulle. The message said: “ Yesterday I made a point of expressing publicly the principles on which my conduct is based. Let there therefore be no misunderstanding between us. I have already assured General de Gaulle of my desire for agreement. The moment for the union of all Frenchmen, of goodwill has come. I am ready to receive General de Gaulle to give this union concrete form.” General Bergeret has handed in his resignation, which General Giraud has accepted, says an Algiers message. General Jean Rigaud has also resigned. General Bergeret, who was Assistant High Commissioner of North Africa, has been criticised for pro-Vichy sentiments, and General Rigaud, his political adviser, is alleged to have obstructed union with the de Gaullists. Their removal leaves only General Nogues among those most criticised for Axis-Vichy leanings. Satisfaction is expressed in the press in Britain with the precise implication and general tenor of General Giraud’s Algiers speech, delivered the day after General de Gaulle had issued his six-point plan for French unity. The two statements, says The Times, with continued goodwill and reasonable luck, should have a helpful influence in the attempts to unite all French patriots. In a statement on General Giraud’s broadcast, General de Gaulle stated to-day: “We note with satisfaction that the declaration marks in many respects great progress towards the doctrine of Fighting France as defined and upheld in June, 1940, and again expressed in the memorandum of the National Committee on February 23. Countless testimonies which have reached us from France prove that this doctrine was passionately approved by the immense majority of oppressed nationals. The National Committee now 'hopes to see the declaration of General Giraud speedily translated into acts. In any case I repeat that we have often affirmed that we are ready to study on the spot between Frenchmen ways and means for the effective union of the Empire so imperiously demanded by the interests of France at war.”