LAST HOURS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 September 1940, Page 7

LAST HOURS

EVACUATION FROM FRANCE SOUTH AFRICAN LEGATION'S ‘ DEPARTURE. FAREWELL TO GENERAL ; WEYGAND. ' The last person Captain Colin Bain--1 Marais, the Union's Minister in France, saw when he left Bordeaux was Gen- ■ era! Weygand, to whom he conveyed ' the fact that his South African mis--1 sion in France was ended. Describing his experiences in France : in the last hours before the capitulation, he said that when he told General Weygand he had decided to leave France the General asked why. He replied that there was no purpose in remaining, as the French Government had signed armistice terms. General Weygand again queried the necessity; but his farewell was a most cordial one. CANADIAN MINISTER. Colonel Vanier, the Canadian Minister to France, took leave of General Weygand at the same time. The two Ministers had previously called on President Lebrun and M. Baudouin, the Foreign Minister, to say farewell Captain Bain-Marais said that steps had been taken some days previously to send away the wives and children of the legation staff. Eventually only the Minister and his attache, Mr Taljaard, were left to make their own arrangements for a quick getaway if necessary. The British Ambassador and the South African and Canadian Ministers were the last to leave. After paying tribute to the British Ambassador. Sir Ronald Campbell and I his staff, and the British Navy for the expedition and efficiency with which British subjects were taken from the danger zone, Captain BainMarais told the story of their escape from France. IN POURING RAIN. “The British Ambassador, Colonel Vanier and I. left at midnight from Bordeaux, and early the following morning boarded a small sardine boat proceeding out into the blue, in the hope of seeing a British cruiser. We pitched about in pouring rain for about foul- hours. Eventually we were picked up by a British destroyer, from which we were subsequently transferred to another British warship, in which we travelled to England. "France had fallen under the heel of the conqueror; but I still feel that the spirit of France lives among a certain section of the people; and we must keep contact with them and try and build up that spirit in the future." LACKED LEADERSHIP. Throughout the recent period, he added. France had completely lacked leadership. There had been many small ambitious men and a tremendous amount of intrigue after the last war and constitutional France had been completely undermined. He believed that the greatest reason for the collapse of the French Army was the building of the Maginot Line, which had induced a spirit of inertia and a feeling of security and over-confid-ence. Asked as to the position of the French colonies, he said he believed that they would fight on and that if they were summoned by Bordeaux to deliver up their territories they would decline to do so. He added that a number of young Frenchmen were doing everything they could to get out of France and continue the fight. He understood that there were I some 420.000 young Frenchmen trying I to get away to make themselves avail- ' able to the Allied cause.