ARMED CAMP

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21199, 23 August 1940, Page 5

ARMED CAMP

CONDITIONS IN PARIS HITLER’S PREPARATIONS TO INVADE BRITAIN (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, August 22 According to a neutral diplomat who has arrived in Lisbon from Paris, the former French capital is an armed camp and is the principal base for Hitler’s projected assault against Britain, says the Lisbon correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. The Germans are maintaining strict secrecy to prevent the slightest detail of their preparations from leaking out. This is illustrated by their refusal of visas to prominent Americans seeking to leave Paris for Switzerland. The diplomat described life in Paris as unpleasant. There was. gunfire in the suburbs every night. The food situation was daily growing worse. “My general impression, gained from conversations with French Government officials, is that they realise Britain alone can save France,” said the diplomat. “The Germans are exercising the greatest pressure on Petain’s Government. Frenchmen are not allowed to leave the country without special authority from the Armistice Commission. Petain is trying to maintain the prestige of the Vichy Government. Pierre Laval’s stocks have seemingly fallen since he went to Paris to see the German Ambassador.” Refugees who have reached Lisbon described France as being slowly bled white under the German occupation. Stores and warehouses are being emptied as fast as conveyances can be found to haul the contents to Germany. France two months ago had food sufficient to last until the end of the year, but now she is feeling the pinch of hunger. A former member of the Argentine Embassy said the French people were still dazed, as if someone had hit them on the head with a club. They were meek and unprotesting, like sheep.

Petain Wants to Resign Obstructed by the Germans at every point, faced with growing criticism from his own countrymen and harassed by the problems of a “starvation” winter ahead, Marshal Petain is anxious to resign, says the Daily Mail’s correspondent, Harold Cardozo, in a despatch from the Franco-Spanish frontier. The 84-year-old Premier is suffering severe strain, says the correspondent, but, so far, his friends have prevailed on him not to take a step which would plunge the country into anarchy and result in a definite split between occupied and unoccupied France. Rapidly-increasing difficulties, the correspondent adds, have beset Petain ever since he decided to seek an armistice. M. Noel and General Huntziger, French delegates to the Armistice Commission, have now gone to Vichy from Wiesbaden (the Commission’s headquarters) to report the absolute failure of all attempts to reach a settlement for the administration of the occupied zones. They are also unable to arrange for the permanent transference of the seat of the Petain Government to Paris or Versailles. The Germans refuse to forgo a single armistice condition or alter the terms in the slightest in order to make the government of the country easier. Disliked by Nazis The correspondent continues: “At the same time, the German-con-trolled Paris press, although not criticising Petain himself, is attacking his colleagues, and keeps up the cry that the Government should go to Paris. “The German military authorities refuse to conclude an agreement for the evacuation of Paris, because, they claim, they dislike several members of the Petain Government, including MM. Marquet and Baudouin.” The Moscow radio, commenting on German dissatisfaction with the Petain Government, says that the Germans believe France is already thinking of revenge and that General Weygand is trying to reorganise the French Army. The Petain Government is also troubled by its dealings with Italy. The Italians have banned the use of French money in Italian-occupied France, with the result that French banks there have had to close and new Italian banks have been opened.

The Canadian Minister of Finance, said subscriptions to the non-interest war loan totalled 2,422,436 dollars on August 8.