MOVES BY VICHY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 230, 27 September 1940, Page 7

MOVES BY VICHY.

FOREIGN SPHERES. Serious Situation Developing In Far East. British Official Wireless. (Reed, noon.) RUGBY, Sept. 26. Referring to the setback suffered by General de Gaulle's first attempt to seize the initiative in Africa, "The Times" says: "In Africa, Vichy has shown fight, if only in defence of its chains. "At the other side of the eastern hemisphere, however, where they were not stiffened by the support of their masters, the Vichy Government allowed the firm stand at first made by their commander on the spot to fall away into collapse. "Indo-China occupies a strategic position of first importance in the Far East, and its fate cannot be a matter of indifference to either Britain or the United States, while, of course, the in-« terest of China is immediate. "Helpless as the Vichy Government would have been at this distance, if unassisted, it is clear that in making a firm resistance to Japanese encroachments they would not have stood alone.

"The precise extent of the concessions made has not been made public, but it is certain that a new and grave threat to the Burma Road has been opened, and no one who knows the methods of Tokyo supposes that the whittling away of the French Empire in Aeia will cease at the point laid down in the agreement.

"The policy of surrender is bringing no less shame on the Vichy Government in its application to Mediterranean lands. The people of Syria are showing that they resent the dishonour of France more than do the men who occupy the seats of autJ#;rity.

"Rather than submit to the Italians, who since the rape of Albania have ranked as the arch-enemies of Islam, Bedouin soldiers are slipping away on their camels from camps near Damascus in search of liberty, and many try to achieve it in union With their old rivals, the Arabs of Iraq. No less significant is the movement among the Senegalese, the sharp-shooter* of what was Wcygand's army for General de Gaulle." "