The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1940. FRENCH COLONIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 227, 24 September 1940, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1940. FRENCH COLONIES.

For the cavse that lacks oesistanec, For the wrtn>D that reeds resistance, For the future in ;he distance, ind the oood that tee van do.

The consequences of Marshal Petain's capitulation continue. The people of every French colony, cut off from the homeland, have been or will be obliged to make their own decision about their future. Some are nominally in charge of officials who have given allegiance to the Vichy Government, but in every one there are people who wish to support the cause of "free France" under the leadership of General de Gaulle. This disunity is, of course, dangerous, and constitutes a temptation and an invitation to external intervention. In French Indo-China, as expected, such pressure has been put on the authorities that they have signed an agreement permitting the entry of Japanese troops. The declared purpose of the Japanese is to gain military bases for the prosecution of 'their war against China. That, no doubt, is the immediate purpose, but he would be a bold man who would predict that if and when the Chinese have been subdued the Japanese will leave Indo-China. Japanese commercial development of the territory will be pursued industriously during the military occupation, and by the time the European war is over Japan will be able to assert, with truth, that a new situation has been created. Meanwhile, at Dakar, the great Atlantic port in French West Africa, there has been external intervention of another kind. General de Gaulle, a man of action, has arrived with a British and French force to ensure that this important strategic point remains no longer under the control of authorities subservient to Nazi Germany. The Germane have shown particular interest in Dakar, and early last month it was reported that a German reconnaissance plane had been seen there. This led to

apprehension of an attempt to seize the port by troops transported from Libya by air. Such a German control would have endangered not only France's West and Central African possessions, but might have constituted a threat to Sierra Leone and olher British possessions. The British Government therefore had more than one reason to furnish General de Gaulle with material aid in his venture. The happenings at Dakar are not yet fully reported, but if de Gaulle has been successful the action may well have a decisive effect in other French African colonies whose attitude has been in doubt.