Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1940. AN UNWORTHY GOVERNMENT.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 October 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1940. AN UNWORTHY GOVERNMENT.

♦ TN no slight degree the outlook for Britain in the Mediteiranean and in some other war areas is complicated and made much more difficult than it otherwise would be by the policy of the Vichy Government —an administration that is showing itself ever more unworthy, as time goes on, to represent, speak and act for France. The defeatist spirit of Marshal Petain and his colleagues and their complete subservience to Nazi aggression was made manifest in painful fashion the other day m Dakar. On the basis of that humiliating precedent it is difficult indeed to believe that the vital questions now being raised in Syria, French Morocco and other territories will be- dealt with by the Vichy Government in a manner paying any real regard to the interests of France. Something of a stand apparently is being made at the moment against Italian demands m Syria, but in the main the attitude of the men of Vichy where the territories of the French Empire are concerned has been one of meek subservience to the Axis. Miserably as its present rulers, are playing the enemy’s game, thefFrench nation has in no way forfeited the sympathy of its former allies. Even in these gloomy days, and with a winter at hand in which hardship and dearth are in prospect, neutral observers have spoken of a revival of the spirit of independence and pride of nationality in both occupied and Unoccupied France. The people, one of these obsert ers said recently, are emerging from a kind of nightmare which followed the shattering news of the capitulation to Germany. An American correspondent wrote a week or two ago:— Paris is marvellous, though it is too sad for me. to stay in. See how Parisians are standing up to the invader with calm, quiet dignity. Nightly they gather in each other’s houses, with doors and windows closed, to listen to the 8.8. C. Their only pleasure is to hear of the exploits of your wonderful Air Force. None of them believe the German figures. Hopes already are being entertained that before long the Vichy Government will find its position made untenable by the rising tide of adverse public opinion. Indeed the correspondent just quoted observes that what cynical, realistic French observers are now awaiting is some open manifestation of M. Laval s own misgivings about the possibility of having backed the wrong horse. In other words (adds the correspondent) they await the “ratting” of M. Laval “and other patriots” in the Petain Government, which probably will take the form of a temporary retirement to allow less astute and less experienced politicians like the Foreign Minister, M. Baudouin, to take perhaps greater risks of being wrong, until it is seen which way the cat is jumping. So long as the Nazi occupation continues, it would no doubt be idle to anticipate any decisive step towards political rehabilitation in France, but it may be possible, even 'with the enemy in possession, to destroy the spurious pretensions of the Vichy Government and to make an end of the conditions in which it pretends to be acting for and in the interests of France, when its actual part is that of slavish servitude to the Nazi dictatorship. .The effect even of that. measure- of recovery might be to modify profoundly the position and outlook in those parts of the French Empire which meantime stand at least negatively opposed to Britain and to the efforts Britain is making, not only in defence of her own liberties, but for the redemption of France from an ignominious bondage.