JOINED ALLIES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 308, 31 December 1942, Page 5

JOINED ALLIES

FRENCH SOMALILAND VITAL TO RED SEA ROUTE London, Dec. 29. French Somaliland has joined the United Nations, and the flag; of Fighting France has been flying over Jibuti since last night. The agreement was signed yesterday, the signatories being the commander of the British forces in Abyssinia, the Fighting French representative in Nairobi, and the actingGovernor of French Somaliland. The official announcement of the agreement said: “French Somaliland adheres to the United Nations as part of Fighting France.” Thus the last part of the French Empire in Africa under the control of Vichy has thrown in its lot with the Allies. Jibuti, the capital of French Somaliland, is on the Red Sea nearly 150 miles away from the British base at Aden. It commands the entrance to the Red Sea, vital to the Allied shipping routes, and is also the terminus of the only railway from Addis Ababa to the coast. The Fighting French National Committee has announced that M. Andre Mayardelle, a colonial administrator who was formerly in Equatorial Africa, has been appointed Governor of French Somaliland, and that he has already left for Jibuti. Fighting French officials in London say that' a garrison will be maintained in the colony to ensure the <*efence of this strategically important Red Sea territory. French troops in the colony number about a division. General de Gaulle has agreed to their request to be sent as soon as possible to fight against the enemy.