BITTER OUTBURST

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21199, 23 August 1940, Page 6

BITTER OUTBURST

BY FRENCH MINISTER MR CHURCHILL ATTACKED CRITICISM OF BLOCKADE <Unlt#d Prut Assn—Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received August 23, 3.15 p.m.) VICHY, Aug. 22 ** Britain’s refusal to lift the blockade against France is an act of hostility worse than Oran,” declared M. Baudoin. in a violent broadcast attack on Mr Churchill. He added that it was inhuman and unworthy of a Christian country. “ Who doesn’t feel that the blockade throws the shadow far into the future? A world died on May 10. We have better things to do than to regret it. The nations of all continents will be bound by an ever-growing solidarity, from which Mr Churchill is excluding England by not allowing a great part of Europe to be sufficiently fed. 44 Mr Churchill reproaches France for giving up the fight. We are not weary of repeating the truth in opposition to repeated lies. In June the French army was dispersed, encircled and decimated, and had only its breasts with which to resist the invader. “ Mr Churchill says 2.000,000 English soldiers were ready for battle. I affirm, without fear of denial, that in June only two British divisions, totalling 50,000 men, were fighting on our side, and one-tenth of the British Air Force was flying at long intervals over an ever wider battlefield. “ How can Mr Churchill say that we had sufficient forces outside France to continue the struggle when the overseas soldiers do not total a single army? If he wishes to justify the grave Somaliland reverse, will he be able to convince anyone that a garrison of 5000 at Djibouti would be sufficient? Who would believe that our four North African divisions and the 60,000 stationed in Syria would have continued the fight? Did Not Deserve Victory " All the fighting men we questioned made one reproach against the former French Government. It was that if was too long in drawing a lesson from events. We were conquered because we did not deserve victory for Mr Churchill. 44 The crime of the men of Vichy is that they have not abandoned French territory, and have not continued the struggle in the colonies, but their honour is that at no time have they dissociated the country’s leaders from the country itself. To leave France would be behaving like

cowards, whilst pretending to be heroes. “ If the Government is blamed for taking the painful armistice decision it should have been by fighting men, not Mr Churchill, for which reason France does not expect salvation from Britain. France expects herself to achieve a re-birth.” Horrors of Famine M. Baudouin continued: “The blockade is a terrible foreboding of famine. France needs the products of her colonies in order to live. All things we at present need or are likely to need still more next winter are accumulating at overseas ports because the English Fleet will not permit them to pass. I sent proposals to London on August 2, and after three weeks’ silence Mr Churchill replied that no discussion was possible with the French Government. ‘‘The horrors of battle may be forgotten, but the memory of a child and a mother suffering brands itself on the memory of generations. Who does not feel that this pitiless arm strikes first at the small and weak end hits the vanquished before exhausting the victor?”