ATTACK PREDICTED

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 251, 24 October 1942, Page 5

ATTACK PREDICTED

AXIS PROPAGANDA BUSY EFFECT OF DARLAN'S VISIT.

P.A. Gable.

LONDON, Oct. 22.

Tension throughout French West Africa has been heightened as the result of Admiral Darlan's visit to Dakar and Marshal Fetain's warning of new dangers threatening. Axis broadcasts are continually emphasismg the arrival of American troops in West Africa and General de Gaulle's visit to French Equatorial Africa and the Belgian Congo, which are being linked with alleged accounts of intense British air activity at Gibraltar. Berlin radio to-night said that Berlin political circles attach great importance to Darlan's visit to Dakar, which is the most seriously threatened point of the French colonial empire. The radio added that Darlan was anxious to convince hirnself of French West African I military preparedness and will discuss with the Commander-in-Chief, General Barrant, measures for the protection of Dakar and other parts of French West Africa. Admiral Darlan, Commander of the Vichy forces, broadcasting from Dakar, read a message from Marshal Petain to the people of French West Africa, which said: "You have demonstrated your devotion to the unity of the French Empire when in September, 1940, under causeless at-

mSBr JT JBBBw .w jOmr M Jmaw & JRMw Jr JSBKw ^ JSBOr Jw tack, you offered victorious resistanee of which unliappy France has still the right to be proud. New dangers to-day hang over you, while in other parts of the Empire its heroic defenders are yielding only to superior numbers, knowing that their sacrifice will not be in vain when the day of justice dawns. 1940 REPULSE RECALLED. "These threats have no shadow of excuse. You will give every aggression the same answer as you did in September, 1940. Dakar, for which so many Frenchmen have given their lives in its defence and development, is/ffoser to our hearts each day." Darlan is making a tour of inspection of French West Africa. The Vichy gazette announces that Brigadier-General Jacquot and General Vallat, who was inspector of the medical corps, and also the first-class Colonial Governor, M. Parisot, have been retired "in application of the law against secret societies." Parisot was formerly a Governor of Senegal. Last year he became Secretary-Gen-eral to the Governor- General of French East and West Africa. Petain refused to broadcast a plea to French workers to go to Germany, says the British United Press. Unrest against the attempted mobilisation is reported to have tied up many, French railway services.