COMMENT IN LONDON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 September 1940, Page 5

COMMENT IN LONDON

VICHY TRYING TO PLEASE NAZI MASTERS GERMAN SCHEMES IN DAKAR. ATTEMPTS TO DESTROY FRENCH EMPIRE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, September 24. Referring to the action at Dakar, a London commentator said it was 1 difficult to judge from London how the French would take the whole affair. This much was obvious, he said: Once again the Germans had succeeded in persuading men' in French uniform to take part in the destruction of the French Empire. Reports received from France, said the commentator, suggested that the anger of the average Frenchman over the fighting at Dakar was at least as likely to turn against the men of Vichy as against General de Gaulle, who, after all, was only trying to save the French overseas empire from the same slavery as that in which France found herself. All the announcements' on the subject coming from Vichy are clearly meant to discredit General 'de Gaulle in the eyes of his fellow-countrymen. The truth is that the Germans have had eyes on Dakar for a long time. It is a useful naval station and the most western for the crossing to South America. The population has shown enthusiasm for the cause of Free France, and that is why General de Gaulle has gone there. All the evidence shows that the bulk of the population would have welcomed him with enthusiasm if the hands of the Vichy administration in the colony had not been strengthened by those six warships and other defences. The propaganda which the Vichy Government is putting out about the whole affair shows only how far they' are anxious to please' their German masters.

AMERICAN OPINION ATTACK ON DAKAR WELCOMED. WASHINGTON, September 24. Officials commented anonymously that they were pleased that Britain had attacked Dakar in an effort to establish a de Gaulle regime because Dakar was as the most likely point from which the Nazis would invade South America. They added that it was a tragedy of fate that France should be simultaneously fighting Britain in Dakar and Japan in Indo-China. BRITISH SQUADRON BATTLESHIPS & OTHER CRAFT. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. September 23. Vichy declares that the latest reports indicate that the British squadron at Dakar consists of two battleships, four cruisers, six auxiliary cruisers, and a number of destroyers. RAID ON GIBRALTAR BY FRENCH WARPLANES. ACCORDING TO GERMAN REPORT.

(Received This Day. 10.25 a.m.) BERLIN, September 24. The Official News Agency reports that 120 French warplanes, stationed in Morocco, heavily bombarded Gibraltar as a reprisal for the British bombardment of Dakar.