STORY OF TREACHERY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 June 1940, Page 6

STORY OF TREACHERY

BETRAYAL OF FRANCE TOLD BY AMERICAN WRITER ALLEGED GRAFT AND BRIBERY. EFFECT OF BELGIAN DEBACLE. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day. 11.35 a.m.) NEW YORK. June 24. The “Chicago Daily News” publishes a copyright article by Mr M. W. Fodor, who has returned from Europe. He says the French breakdown was mainly the result of the Belgian collapse and treachery, ine-f-iciency and graft in France. King Leopold, Van Overstraten and Corap were the military villains of the tragedy. France’s fate was decided on May IC. The Belgian debacle, Mr Fodor slates, started with (reason on the Meuse and Albert Canal, where bridges were not destroyed through German bribery. Added to this there was treason near Sedan, where the French "forgot” to blow, up six bridges. This is persistently reported to be due to German bribes in high French quarters.

MORAL DECADENCE FRANCE SAID TO BE IN DANGER OF CHAOS. LAVAL AND BONNET AS LEADING QUISLINGS. ■ (Received This Day, 12.25 p.m.) NEW YORK. June 24. Helen Kirkpatrick, in a dispatch to the “Chicago Daily News” from London, says Englishmen and Frenchmen arriving from France declare that treachery in high places, the employment of supposedly bona fide refugees by Ministries and moral decadence, causing important Frenchmen to place their personal interests above the national interest, were factors weakening the French Army. After evidence of treachery beyond realisation by the outside world, the French guarding two Somme bridgeheads handed them over to the Germans because they were convinced the French Government did not intend to fight. The dispatch adds that it is questionable whether France will not dissolve into chaos and revolution unless Laval. Bonnet and others regarded as leading Quislings establish a strong German-supported Fascist Government.