Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 1940. TREASON IN FRANCE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 July 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 1940. TREASON IN FRANCE.

WHETHER Marshal Petain and his colleagues of the Vichy Government which is ostensibly the Government of 1 rance retain any freedom of decision and action or have become as it were, merely and entirely so many rubber nsed by the Nazis is a question more or less open. That the \ rel y Government, like the rest of occupied France is m power of the Nazis, is of course obvious, but the ultimate aer diet of France and of history on Marshal Petain and his colleagues may depend in part on whether they are exercising any degree of initiative in their present policy and actions. At a minimum, however, these Ministers have betrayed France and are continuing to betray her, if only in consenting to remain m office and to allow their names to be associated with the conditions that have been and are being imposed on their country. Marshal Petain and his colleagues plainly took the initiative in going much further than circumstances compelled them to °'o in putting France and her resources as completely as possible at the mercy and disposal of ruthless and unscrupulous invaders. The Ministers who now constitute a puppet Government of France could hardly have improved upon what they have done had their aim'been to intensify the consequence of defeat and to raise maximum obstacles to the recovery by the French people of their liberty. It has still to be determined, however, whether the men who have’ thus betrayed France are acting in any degree of their own volition, for example, in placing on trial on charges involving life imprisonment or death former Ministers—Mm. Daladier, Reynaud, Mandel and others —whose only apparent “crime” is that they sought to organise the defence of France and to save her. from the overwhelming calamity, by which she has now been overtaken. It must be hoped that in this matter, at least, Marshal Petain and his colleagues are acting entirely under duress. That they should allow themselves to be associated even passively with such an infamy is, ho'wever, appalling. As Nazi policy' is being developed, it is now obvious that Frenchmen who consent to administer France under Nazi dictation must be classed as bitter and unscrupulous enemies of their own country. It is no longer possible to pretend that provision is being made in any 7 respect for the welfare of the French people, even in conditions of helpless servitude. On the contrary 7 it is manifest that an essential aim of the Nazi dictatorship is so to plunder France and other occupied territories that the full brunt of the famine Europe is doomed to experience during the coming winter shall fall on these, territories and their inhabitants, while the effects of the prevailing dearth are modified as far as possible in Germany 7. At a longer view, the part assigned to France and other occupied countries, so long as the Nazis hold sway, is that of economic helotage which might just as well, for all practical purposes, be described frankly as slavery. In the New Europe projected by the Nazis, France and other countries sharing her fate are to become satellites of Germany, under her absolute control. Germany, as the project runs, will sell manufactures to these countries at her own price and buy 7 what she chooses of their produce also at her own price, the process being masked, if need be, by measures of monetary 7 control and manipulation. In addition, the Nazi dictatorship already is openly shaping plans for the political dismemberment of France. Mention has been made, for instance, of the inclusion of French territory 7 in a “buffer State” also to include Belgium and part of Holland, and it was reported yesterday from Geneva that: “An official German communique announces that Germany 7 has expressly 7 recognised the existence of Brittany, whose status is being internationally fixed by 7 bilateral treaties.” To this it was added that: — The Germans are representing France as a conglomerate of peoples, including Basques, Catalans, Flemings and Walloons, possibly as a presage to further separatist moves. Apparently there is no limit to what the Nazis have done or are preparing to do, militarily, politically 7 and economically to destroy 7 France and grind her into the dust. That a French Government should make itself even passively accessory 7 to these abominations is an intolerable additional humiliation and degradation. The very 7 baseness of this betrayal may 7 be expected, however, to quicken resolution in the hearts of all free and loyal Frenchmen, upheld by an undimmed faith in the ultimate; redemption of the their country. In the first shock of military 7 disaster many 7 gallant Frenchmen found themselves divided painfully 7 between a desire to continue the struggle and a desire to be loyal to the Government of France. It is now demonstrated conclusively 7 that, there is no practical distinction to be drawn between the Vichy 7 Government and the confessed and deadly 7 ' enemies of the Republic. It is or should be impossible for those who are loyal to France to range themselves in support of the puppet Government headed by 7 Marshal Petain. APPEASEMENT AND AGGRESSION. JJAVING been met by 7 Britain in a spirit of concession on the Burma Road question, the present Japanese Government apparently 7 has felt encouraged to proceed to new excesses in aggression. An extremely critical and dangerous state of affairs obviously 7 is opened up by 7 the arrest in Tokio and other cities of twelve British subjects, one of whom, Mr Melville Cox, is dead as the result of “a mysterious fall from the fourth floor of the Japanese police headquarters while being questioned.” Britain is demanding a full investigation of this tragedy and of the arrests and Press comments in London, some of them suggesting instant reprisals, show that, as might have been expected, intense feeling has been awakened.

Less authoritatively, but with an air of probability, it is reported that the Japanese proposals which China lately rejected provided for the cession to Japan of another five Chinese provinces and for the organisation of the rest of China, with the modest addition of British Burma, French indo-China and Siam, under a Japanese-controlled puppet Government headed by IVlr Wang Ching-wei.

Whether these extravagant demands were or were not in fact made, the position as it stands suggests that Japan is intent on a reckless extension of aggression and that other means than those of mild appeasement must be found of dealing with her. Every effort of course is desirable to reach an understanding, but the gravity of the situation is hardly Io be minimised. A very important question that needs to be cleared up is whether the United States is prepared to take economic or other action against Japanese aggression. The American As-sistant-Secretary of Slate, Mr Sumner Welles, has said 1 lint the United States is not backing down in its opposition Io Hie closing of the Burma Road. Thus far, however, the United States, by exporting essential war .materials freely to .Japan, has done far more to injure China and to assist Japan than would be done if the Burma Road were closed finally and permanently to the passage of supplies for the Chungking Government. As matters stand, British policy in the Pacific evidently must hinge to a material extent on that of the United States.