LEAD TO BETRAYAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24420, 4 October 1940, Page 8

LEAD TO BETRAYAL

FRENCH NAVAL UNITS ADMIRAL DARLAN’S ACTION A STINGING INDICTMENT i ißrltish Official Wireless) RUGBY, Oct. 2. Admiral Muselier, in a world broadcast, indicted Admiral Darlan for betraying his promise to his Allies by abandoning the struggle when the fleet was intact. The personnel desired to continue the fight and expel the invader. Darlan would go down in history as “the admiral who surrendered.” He emphasised that the ships at Dakar were ordered, not to fire against Frenchmen. “We prefer to be martyrs, not assassins,” he said. “A word from Darlan would have resulted in all the French colonies ranging themselves beside the Allies. I deplore the fact that Darlan’s navy devoted itself to carrying out Hitler’s orders to fire against our countrymen. It was the most shameful incident in the history of our navy.” Men Wished to Fight Admiral Muselier recalled that in May Admiral Darlan set up a maritime tribunal at Cherbourg which condemned the captain commandant of marine at Boulogne to 20 years’ hard labour for being guilty of having ordered the abandon-, ment of the town without bringing into play all the forms of resistance at his disposal. “A little later you committed a crime, and very much more seriously. Betraying the word given to the Allies, you gave up the struggle while our navy was intact in material, while the personnel of the same navy, this wonderful body of men that you and I had the honour to command, desired only one thing—to continue the struggle and right the invader to the end. On June 19. in a code message which will remain in history, you ordered every one of the officers and sailors to carry on the struggle with the fiercest energy. We all know how Fiench sailors responded to your appeal. Leaving behind them their families and belongings in the most difficult circumstances, they left French ports threatened by the enemy and went to Britain and Africa. One hope alone was in then hearts —to continue and to pursue to trie end the war against the enemy, the only enemy. Germany. A Capital Mistake “And so it was, Frenchman Darlan, that you committed the greatest mistake that a leader can commit, a capital mistake, an offence against conscience. To these men who had prepared for fighting you ordered surrender and capitulation You led them to the betrayal of an alliance as if such a manoeuvre, carried out in the face of the enemy, was not the worst form of cowardice and treason.” Admiral Muselier denied that he or any French officers or sailors of the Free French Navy were in the pay of any foreign Power or acting against their country.