TALKS CONTINUE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 113, 16 May 1942, Page 5

TALKS CONTINUE

. MARTINIQUE POSITION FRENCH WARSHIPS IMMOBILISED | (By Telegi .:F I'/eud lion —Copyright • ; London, May 14. ; Although no official statement has been issued in Washington, agency messages quote authoritative sources for the statement that ■ the three \ ichy warships at Mar- 1 Unique have been immobilised hy ; the French-American Naval (om- i - i mission. 1 i The talks are continuing at Mar1 Unique, and American officials em- i L phasise that they are dealing direct ; ’ with the Vichy High Commission;. , - J there, and not with Vichy itself. The French warships at Martiniqu- ■ are the aircraft-carrier Bearne, the 1 training cruiser Jeanne d'Arc, and the - mine-laying cruiser Emile Bertin. j President Roosevelt is to conter ’ ' with the Secretary of State, Mr. Cor- | • dell Hull, at Washington later to-day. ■ ’ and it is believed that the position ol ' Martinique and other French posses- ! • sions in the Caribbean Sea will be dis- j - cussed. I A well-known London ne.vspapei : 1 correspondent. commenting on ; 1 Laval's dilemma over Martinique, ■ says that on the one hand the Unite-! ! 1 States is calling lor a show-down over ■ the island, and on the other hand the > Germans are insistent that Lava; i shall resist by all means in his power the loss, or at least the permanent ■ neutralisation of such an important ■ naval base In addition to this, it • looks as if the Germans are caU ir : for a show-down on a w.c..- ’ that i., the amount of collaboration [ Laval is ready to give th- '. .. ; Ail told, says the commentator, Lava; ! mu t lie beginning to regret his return to so-called power. NEW DUTY FOR LAVAL COMimSSIONER FOR JEWISH QUESTIONS London. May 14. Heidrich's meeting yesterday with ( French police chiefs may have some bearing on Laval’s appointment to- . day as Commissioner-General for , Jewish Questions. He has chosen as • his first lieutenant the editor of a Jew-baiting sheet. i FRENCH SOVEREIGNTY ACCUSATIONS DENIED London, May 14. 1 In a broadcast to the French people to-night, General de Gaulle ridiculed German and Vichy accusations that the British wished to seize Mada- : gascar and substitute British for ■ French sovereignty. The truth was, he said, that in all French territories which played an essential part in the common struggle, fighting France exercised rights of sovereignty without restric--1 tion. In Madagascar this same loy- ' alty to their British allies and this ■ same authority of fighting France en- ■ sured that French sovereignty would ‘ neither be interrupted nor eclipsed.