NAZI PRESSURE ON PETAIN

Southland Times, Issue 24355, 8 February 1941, Page 7

NAZI PRESSURE ON PETAIN

FAMILIAR TACTICS IN EVIDENCE (British Official Wireless) (Received February 7, 7.30 p.m.) RUGBY, February 6. German pressure on Vichy continues unabated, but no definite information is available in London as to the exchanges which are taking place, or the circumstances in which they are being conducted. Familiar German tactics are in evidence, particularly in regard to spreading reports and rumours designe to play on the nerves of the French public. . , The Manchester Guardian in a leading article says, “Hitler is following his regular technique in his effort to capture Marshal Petain. He sets his Fifth Column among the Marshal s colleagues. He turns on his Ptais Press, making it flatter one day and threaten the next. He plays on the fears of the public. He creates a party of his own, which is an Opposition in the full sense, for it may be regarded as an alternative Government. These methods are pursued with a good deal of cunning. Rumours are being put into circulation here in order to circulate there in the hope of shaking, or wearing down, French nerves. “But there are those strange lapses that always have been an element in German diplomacy. Of this we have an amusing illustration in' the warning

to the French not to count on a British victory given on the German radio. This allusion to French hope of a British victory shows that Marshal Petain is not powerless. There are conditions to which he will not submit, and, if Hitler forces those conditions on France through a Government of his own, he will find himself faced with a good many difficulties.

FRENCH OPPOSITION “French opposition will not be a negligible matter inside France. Outside, it may be very serious. It is generally known that Hitler wants the use of the fleet and naval bases m order that he may intervene more effectively in the Mediterranean. If he makes such a demand it may possibly be met by active resistance by the fleet, and in the French Empire. “Probably Hitler will make his attack less directly. There are rumours that he is demanding that M. Laval shall be given an important place in the Petain Cabinet, and a dominating hand in French policy. If Marshal Petain accepts Hitler may hope, to get what he wants with the nominal acquiescence of France’s present leader.” “FRANCE WILL RECOVER” The Manchester Guardian expresses the belief that although at present bewildered and distracted, France will recover faster than Prussia recovered after Tilsit, with which the present position in France is compared. It adds: “Amid all this confusion there is a great and growing body of opinion that looks to complete

liberation from Germany as an essential condition cf the regenera-

tion of France. That body watches with eager sympathy the successes of the British arms and British policy. Who can doubt that this policy will prove to be true to France, and that the new order in which France will take her place will not be a Nazi serf system, but a Europe cf free peoples?”

Hitler’s tactics in dealing with France are in accordance with the directions laid down in the following passage of “Mein Kampf”: “The clever conqueror will always, if possible, impose his demands on the conquered by instalments, for a people that makes a voluntary surrender saps its own character. And with such people you can calculate that none of these oppressions, in detail, will supply quite enough reason for it to resort once more to arms.’

DRAMA NEARS CLIMAX Among much comment of varying reliability on Marshal Petain s attempts to resist German machinations as personified by M. Laval, the correspondents of The Daily Express and The Daily Mail emphasize that American representation to Vichy by the United States concern the possibility of the French Fleet being handed over to Germany. The Daily Mail’s correspondent says: The drama of Vichy nears its climax. Admiral Darlan arrived at Paris on the night of February 6 bearing the compromise plan. He will confer with M. Laval, after which it is expected he will go to Vichy. Before Admiral Darlan’s departure from Vichy Cabinet held a last-minute meeting. Admiral Darlan had hardly left before Rear-Admiral W. D. Leahy, American Ambassador to Vichy, visited Marshal Petain and strongly reiterated the warning that the fate of the French Fleet and the maintenance of its integrity were vitally important to the United States. The correspondent adds: Vichy’s counter-proposals are that Marshal Petain should remain at the head of the State, that Admiral Darlan should become Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, M. Laval Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior. _ Marshal Petain is believed to have insisted that Admiral Darlan should be either Minister of the Interior or Foreign Minister.

The Daily Telegraph says: News from Vichy suggests that M. Laval is staking his whole political future by insisting on control of the French Cabinet, while Marshal Petain is attempting to make him a member of a balanced quadrumvirate, over whose decisions Marshal Petain would retain a casting, vote. The quadrumvirate would fall into two groups. One would comprise M. Laval and M. Baudouin, who are both willing to serve Germany’s interest, and the other would consist of Admiral Darlan and General Huntziger, who would not compromise French honour by allowing the armistice to be twisted into an alliance with Germany.