WARSHIPS' MISSION

Taranaki Daily News, 21 September 1940, Page 8

WARSHIPS' MISSION

.FRANCE AND INDO-CHINA Rec. 9 p.m. Vichy, Sept. 20. The Petain Government Foreign Minister, M. PauUBaudouin, said to-day that Britain was notified before the six French warships that were reported last week to have passed Gibraltar left the Mediterranean for Dakar. The warships passed Gibraltar without a single gun firing on them, and not the slightest attempt was made to impede their passage. The mission of the warships was to support the preservation of the French empire against a British effort to provoke dissidence. France would employ all the force permissible under the armistice to assure the integrity of hf r colonial empire against provocations. France would reach a military, political and economic agreement with Japan that would preserve French sovereignty but would give Japan privileges. France owed loyalty to her former enemies, he added, besides scrupulous execution of the armistice, which was drafted honourably. M. Baudouin, French Foreign Minister, told American newspapermen that France was "all alone" in the Far East and should not be judged too severely if her decisions did not please the Western world. France understood that real support could not be expected from America in the event of the Japanese attacking Indo-China and added that France henceforth would remain silent regarding Britain.