VICHY ALARMED

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1940, Page 7

VICHY ALARMED

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.

DE GAULLE'S STRENGTH GROWTH OF FOLLOWING PETAIN'S GREAT EFFORT

London. Sept. 19. Alarmed at the growing following for General' de Gaulle's free French Government in North Africa, Marshal Petain is making every effort to stifle the movement. Acording to reports from Cairo, discontent is growing in Syria. Marshal Petain, in a broadcast to North Africa, declared:— "France has lost the war. Frenchmen are preparing for a hard winter and the hardest of -tasks. France's unity remains intact. No attempt— wherever it may come from— will prevail against this unity. The first duty of Frenchmen is obedience." The former Paris correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, E. B. Wareing, says that one reason why Petain is likely to be disillusioned is that as units of the French Empire join General de Gaulle, the British blockade against them is raised, and they can resume their normal economic lifeNatural Instinct. Apart from the natural instinct not to j submit to Italian and German r-olitical , subordination, the whole mater:al wel- 1 fare of these areas is dependent on having access to normal trade outlets. One of Marshal Petain's greatest weaknesses is that he cannot offer a compensating advantage for acquiescence in defeat because the British blockade effectively prevents any overseas trade even with France itself. The Cairo correspondent of the Daily Telegraph states that arrivals from Syria and Lebanon say that the Foreign Legion and other units of the French forces are showing signs of considerable discontent. They are endeavouring to join the British forces in Palestine, but the frontiers are guarded by imposing contingents of troops. Nevertheless, a number have managed to escape into Egypt to join the free French forces. The Italian armistice commission at Beirut is preparing to dispatch Italian troops to Syria. The commission has demobilised the larger portion of the French Levant army and seized strategic points for the country's defence. It has also seized arms, ammunition, aircraft and aerodromes. It is now engaged in spreading propaganda throughout Syria, but the only effect has been to enrage the population. A colonel associated with the commission was severely manhandled.