DARLAN DENOUNCED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 November 1942, Page 3

DARLAN DENOUNCED

BY FIGHTING FRENCH SPOKESMAN ADMIRAL HATED AND DESPISED IN FRANCE. ACTION OF ALLIES QUESTIONED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.21 a.m.) LONDON, November 25. “North Africa has been given into the hands of the most completely 'hated and despised man in France,” declared General de la Vigrie, of the French Air Force, who has arrived from France to join General de Gaulle. The French people wanted a leader above shady dealings, and they chose General de Gaulle, General de la Vigrie stated.

“We desire that General de Gaulle should be entrusted with establishing a North African political regime similar to those in other parts of the French Empire which have always given allegiance to the Allies,” General de la Vigrie added. “The Darlan regime is a Vichy regime, and incompatible with the laws of the French Republic, to which we have always adhered, but it is useless to discuss a French North African Government until it is known how far England can convince the United States that North Africa must be placed under General de G?ulle. General Nogues gave up his intention to carry on the fight in North Africa after the French armistice with Germany, when Marshal Petain told him to submit or resign. General Nogues’s political attitude has always been unstable.” The voice of the Fighting French, which has broadcast from London twice daily since June, 1940, was silent for the first time today. The usual military spokesman explained: “As long as Darlan is retained as head in North Africa, I cannot conscientiously continue to send messages, because it is impossible to make Darlan’s appointment clear to the French people.” Messrs Aneurin Bevan and Boothby are among the signatories of a motion tabled in the House of Commons, declaring that “The House is of opinion that our relations with Darlan and his kind are inconsistent with the ideals for which we entered the war.”