THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Monday, May 3, 1943. MARTINIQUE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25215, 3 May 1943, Page 2

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Monday, May 3, 1943. MARTINIQUE

Wrongheadedness so convinced as to permit of no explanation but that its possessor is a stubborn Fascist has been the constant distinguishing characteristic of Admiral Georges Robert, High Commissioner of French possessions in the West Indies. The admiral’s principal charge is, of course, the island of Martinique, in the Windward Group, over whose fortunes he has presided, in what he presumably regarded as a hostile democratic world, with grim intractability which could have been admirable if exercised in a better cause. For the Allies, and not least for the United States, which is particularly sensitive to the presence of unfriendly elements within the Western Hemisphere. Martinique has been, since the fall of France, a territory of some interest. It has at Fort de France a good port and naval' station, and could offer harbourage in addition to many secret visitors around its coast. When the French armistice was signed with Germany the island was giving hospitality to two important units of the French fleet, the powerful old aircraft carrier Bearn, of 22,000 tons, and the cruiser Emile Bertin, in addition to the training cruiser Jeanne d’Arc and several auxiliary vessels. Nor did these warships, which remain at Martinique, exhaust its attractions for the Allies or, more pointedly, for any other Power that might have succeeded in forcing a way there. It possesses a powerful radio station, and is also, reputedly, the repository of some 200,000,000 francs in gold brought there from metropolitan France. Under Admiral Robert’s control is French merchant shipping of the West Indies trade totalling something around 100,000 tons. When France first capitulated and the nation was left without true leadership it was perhaps understandable that Admiral Robert should be in doubt as to the direction in which duty and allegiance lay, and his decision to stand by Marshal Petain was accepted by the Allies in very good part. Except for the precautionary measure of keeping vigil over the island from a discreet distance, the United States did not interfere in its affairs. Just a year ago, however, when Pierre Laval became the head of the Vichy Government, the United States State Department obtained from Admiral Robert an undertaking that the French West Indies possessions should not be used in any way by the Axis, and he was a little later persuaded to disarm his warships. The common-sense necessity for these measures possibly made them no more acceptable to an administrator who had shortly before been suspected of conniving at the entertainment on Martinique of a Nazi officer landed from a submarine. When the invasion of North Africa finally cut” Martinique off from the possibility of communication with France it was thought by the Allies that Admiral Robert, with the fate of the French fleet at Toulon to guide him, might be prepared at last to co-operate with the United Nations. This he might usefully have done by directing the merchant shipping in his control to the supplying of Africa and releasing the warships to join Richelieu and other French naval units which are now being refitted in the United States. He insisted, however, that he could accept orders only from Petain, nominal leader of a Government no longer recognised by any of the Allies, and, in truth, recognised only as a matter of convenience by Hitler. Pressure in the months since the stirring developments in North Africa at last provided France with a great rallying point has evidently failed to shake Admiral Robert in his professions of loyalty to the puppet Government in France. The United States Government has had every provocation for the decision it has now taken to abrogate all agreements with him. This step presumably presages action to resolve a situation that diplomatically had become intolerable, if farcical, and from the viewpoint of military strategy was fraught with dangerous possibilities.