FRENCH DELEGATES JOURNEY BY AIR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 June 1940, Page 5

FRENCH DELEGATES JOURNEY BY AIR

Military Resistance Continued EXTENDED PROGRESS CLAIMED BY ENEMY MANY REFUGEES SEEKING ENTRY TO SPAIN (By Telegraph.—Press Association— Copyright.) LONDON, June 20. The French radio tin's morning announced that the French plenipotentiaries left the Bordeaux aerodrome in a fighter plane yesterday to meet the German representatives. Neither the French nor German authorities reveal the names of the negotiators or their place of meeting. The Bordeaux correspondent of the British United J ress says it is reported without confirmation that the French representatives are: Genera] Uuntziger, M. Baudouin (the new Foreign Minister), and M. Leon Noel (former Ambassador to Poland, and the General Delegate in the Rhine Provinces in 1927). ’ . +1 The French radio announcement appealed again to the French populace to wait the result with calm and to give all help to the soldiers in their continued resistance. Yesterday Germans were moving into the highlands below central France and threatening Lyons, which is 160 miles from the Mediterranean coast. They continued their progress also in the. west. The enemy claimed progress in north-east France but stated that the French were still resisting on both sides of the Maginot Line. This morning it is announced that the city of Lyons, which was declared an undefended town, was occupied by advanced German forces. The Military Governor of Toulon, on the Mediterranean coast, announced that his city will be defended against all attacks, and that no civilians must leave their homes without permits. This excludes Toulon from the recent French procla-. mation declaring all cities with more than 20,000 population open towns. The Germans last night disregarded the general proclamation by making bomb attacks on Bordeaux, which is the seat of the French Government and is thickly crowded with refugees. Recalling the occasion a year ago when half a million refugees crossed, into France at the end of the Spanish War, it is stated by refugees from France reaching Trim, on the Spanish side of the frontier, that thousands of persons are jamming the Spanish consulates seeking visas to enter Spain. Refugees who have crossed the frontier include a former Polish Ambassador in Rome and members of embassies and consulates of various nations, M. Van Zeeland (a former' Belgian Premier and leader of the Catholic Party), the former Empress Zita and her son. Archduke Otto (Pretender to the throne of Austria), and the Grand Duchess of Luxemburg. Au Italian news agency report from Basle states that Hitler demands the complete disarmament and the partial occupation of France till the end of the war against Britain. The “Popolo di Roma” claims that one of the conditions of peace will be a partition of French territory between Germany and Italy. It says that France will be called on to surrender all the gold and credits held on behalf of Britain and the countries Germany lias seized, to surrender all raw materials and to give a guarantee that normal industrial activity will be resumed. The Berlin radio said: “It is useless to appeal to Germany's generosity and nobility. The balance of power in Europe must be readjusted. France has been trying for 300 years to dismember, oppress and humiliate Germany. She must he destroyed. German arms will speak as long as the Fuehrer thinks fit to settle outstanding accounts to the last item.”