FREE FRENCH IN SOMALILAND
REPORT OF REVOLT VICHY CIRCULATES STORY OF INVASION (Rec. 6.30 p.m.) VICHY, April 28. Official advice has been received from Djibouti that a column of General Charles de Gaulle’s Free French Forces has attacked French Somaliland from Daouanieh, on the Addis AbabaDjibouti railway, according to a statement issued by the Vichy Government. It is supported by British motorized forces.
Earlier the Vichy Government announced that Free French troops, supported by British mechanized units, were massed along the southern border of French Somaliland. The Ministry for the Colonies, it stated, had given the necessary instructions to the Governor of French Somaliland to prevent the colony from going over to General de Gaulle. The announcement added that Free French troops were concentrated at a point on the Djibouti-Addis Ababa railway. Other forces disembarked at Zeila.
DISTRIBUTION OF PAMPHLETS The Free French forces distributed pamphlets by aeroplane over all the military posts in the interior of French Somaliland, calling on the troops to go to Daouanieh or Zeila with their arms. The Vichy News Agency says that although negotiation is possible regarding the transport of food and the evacuation of the wounded along the Addis AbabaDjibouti railway, there can be no question of French Somaliland negotiating with dissident French.
The headquarters of the Free French forces in London states that it has no knowledge of the attacks. It suggests that this information should be viewed with the greatest reserve, as it has every appearance of being news of a spontaneous movement in the midst of the French garrison itself at Djibouti which, together with the civil population, is known for a long time to have cherished a very favourable feeling towards the Free French. The statement recalls that, following the armistice, Djibouti was one of the first French, possessions to send out a call for continued resistance.
The Vichy Government claims that British warships anchored off Djibouti are completely blockading the port.
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Southland Times, Issue 24422, 30 April 1941, Page 5
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323FREE FRENCH IN SOMALILAND Southland Times, Issue 24422, 30 April 1941, Page 5
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