MURDEROUS FIGHTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 November 1940, Page 5

MURDEROUS FIGHTING

ALLEGED BY VICHY. DENIED BY FREE FRENCH COMMAND. VICHY, November 11. Communication with Libreville has been cut since last night, when the Vichy commander of Gabon, General, Tatu, declared: “Murderous fighting is going on at the gates of the capital.”

A Free French communique from Libreville, the 8.8. C. reports, states that, contrary to sensational propaganda reports, the operations leading to the capture of the town gave rise to few casualties. BELGIAN SUPPORT SPEECH BY CONGO GOVERNOR. RUGBY, November 11. The Governor-General of the Belgian Congo, broadcasting an Armistice Day message from Leopoldville, said that Free France was celebrating the November armistice in. a brilliant fashion as a protest against the armistice the Vichy Government signed with Germany. It was a happy augury that Libreville had been occupied, and he expressed his conviction that the whole Of the French Empire must irresistibly be drawn to support the cause of Free France.

He recalled the four years during which his own country had been under German rule, and said that just as on November 11, 1918, German domination vanished overnight, so once' again would Belgium rejoice in her deliverance. He urged Belgians to celebrate Armistice Day in their own homes. “Flags are forbidden in Belgium," he said, “but they fly in Belgium because they fly to the four winds in the Belgian Congo.”