FRENCH UNITY

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22474, 8 January 1943, Page 5

FRENCH UNITY

| General de Gaulle’s Proposal Situation Causes Concern By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn Copyright LONDON. January 6. The French National Committee in London is understood already to have formulated its views on French unity. The Committee emphasises : (1) That the single authority to Which General de Gaulle referred in a recent broadcast must consist only of men of unimpeachable records. i2) This authority must be based on “Republican legitimacy.” that is, it must derive its authority in no way from Vichy, but from the French Republic's last Government. (3> It is emphasised that the political head must be General dfe Gaulle. Vichy Liquidation Informed quarters interpret General de Gaulle’s proposal for temporary enlarged power in North Africa as a demand for a political upheaval, which might hamper the military preparations and which would hardly be acceptable to General Giraud, states the Washington correspondent of the “New York Times.” General de Gaulle's supporters apparently desire the complete liquidation of all Vichy appointees. However, the United States is not the occupying Power, but the ally of the French in North Africa. Therefore, she cannot dictate to General Giraud as the de Gaulle sympathisers apparently think she should. The Dakar correspondent of the Associated Press of America states that the Governor-General of French North Africa (M. Boisson) declared at a press conference that he considered a rapprochement with the de Gaulle party most desirable in the highest interests of France. However, ■it was not a problem limited only to West Africa, and it devolved on General Giraud to treat fully. M. Boisson added that superbly-trained West African troops were already being sent north. Political Tangle The political tangle in French North Africa is causing even more concern than the military situation. London tiewspapers give prominence to Mr Ernest Pyle’s dispatch to the “New York World Telegram,”, from Oran, in Which he says: “Our policy is still appeasement. It stems from what might be called the hodge-podge of French emdlions. We left in office most, of the small fry officials whom the Germans put there. We are permitting Fascist societies to continue to exist. There are an astonishing number of Axis sympathisers in North Africa, though they are not in the majority, but our fundamental policy is one of ‘soft-gloving snakes’ in our midst.” Mr Ferdinand Touhy, writing in the “Daily Mail" (London) says that the local government has been kept going through Lieutenant-General D. W. Eisenhower, who must rely considerably on a pack of officials who were nominated by Vichy at its worst. Admiral Darlan, under pressure, was preparing to shift some of these officials when he was shot by a neurasthenic youth, who was probably influenced by men likely to lose their jobs. The same menaced officials faked the plot which caused General Giraud to arrest Allied friends and sympathisers and which threw the monkey wrench into the plans for conciliation between General Giraud and General de Gaulle. The Petain influence permeates the Government through legionnaires who went the reactionary, “’’right” restored in France, and are acting accordingly. The army is comfortably off and Frenchmen who invaded Algiers by means of Vichy exit permits ardently support it. Mr Touhy says it is impossible to view Algiers without misgiving as to how much General Giraud can and will do.