FURTHER THREAT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 243, 11 September 1940, Page 8

FURTHER THREAT.

UNOCCUPIED FRANCE

GERMAN INVASION DANGER

LONDON, Sept. 7

Further German invasion of unoccupied France is threatened. Haunted by this fear, and riven by dissension, the vacillating Vichy Government, under Marshal Petain, has been reconstructed.

“Beyond the limits fixed by tinterms of the armistice, the shadow of the German armies*is an ever present menace to a Government that is becoming weaker every day,” says the special correspondent of the r l imes. “Despite its precarious situation, the Vichy Government, is apparently legislating for eternity, and attempting to transform France to- an almost exclusively agricultural country, to suppress liberal institutions, and to mould youth according to the totalitarian model,” savs the Times correspondent. ‘‘‘Because it lacks raw materials, the Government initiated a back-to-the-land campaign, under which Marshal Petain decided that uncultivated "lands should be confiscated and redistributed. “Newspapers arc declaring that shortly there will be no fallow fields in France. “The Vichy reform most _ likely to arouse German mistrust consists in the creation of youth camps, in which physical and moral training, based on the principles of the totalitarian States, will be given, because totalitarian camps are the preliminary to military training. “Germany is expected to keep tne closest watch on this experiment.” The Vichy Government is also fostering the production of “ersatz” industrial materials, clay being substituted for soap, and oil being produced from oleaginous plants. The most arduous task facing the Vichy Cabinet is the successful conclusion ‘of the trials of former Ministers, which, it is reported, will not be before December.