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Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1940. IN THE SERVICE OF FRANCE.

PENERAL WEYGAND has been sufficiently emphatic m Vl denyino' that there is any lack of harmony between. Marshal Petain’s polities and l)is own and in affirming that he is m Morocco to “maintain the union of French Africa with metropolitan France.” He would have been rather more illuminating, however, if, instead of denouncing what he is pleased to call British and American propaganda, he had given even a brier exposition of the politics on which he finds himself m complete agreement with Marshal Petain. Propaganda, entirely apart, it is impossible for dispassionate observers in Britain, America or anywhere else to see that Marshal Petain has any other politics or policy, where the things that matter supremely at the moment are concerned, than that of tame submission to a ruthless, brutal and insatiable' enemy who is pledged to the destruction of France and is carrying his pledge progressively into effect. It puts, m tact, a considerable tax on credulity to be asked to believe that Marshal Petain is playing any positive part as the leader of what is called unoccupied France. There is much to suggest that the only really active section of the Government of surrender which has its headquarters at Vichy consists of M. Laval and those who are with him in being prepared, for base motives, to betray both their own country and its former allies. Assuming for’the moment, however, that the aged soldier who nominally heads the Vichy Government has some definite aim ol leadership, it at least must be asked what that aim is supposed to be and ’in what manner it is being approached. If Marshal Petain, or General Weygand on his behalf, were able to show that the people of France were deriving or were likely to derive in future any relief or benefit from the policy of submission for which the Vichy Government stands, they‘would get at least a sympathetic hearing in Britain and in other parts 'of the democratic world. The truth, however, plainly is that the Vichy Government exists only to do what it is told by the Nazi dictatorship and that France could not have suffered a worse fate than it is now enduring had it refused to set up any Government when the armistice with Germany had been concluded. In the seizure of her territory, the looting of her industrial and transport equipment and her stocks of material and the infamous terrorism and oppression to which her people are subjected, France is being treated in every way as an entirely servile and helpless dependency of Nazi Germany. Any limits set to the process of exploitation plainly are dictated' by Nazi hopes of obtaining more by cajolery than can be obtained by a direct exercise of brute force. The one positive purpose the Vichy Government is serving is that of reducing to inaction and submission certain French colonies which otherwise might be co-operating with Free France in the fight for the re-establishment of French liberty. It has been suggested that Marshal Petain and his colleagues fear that if Morocco, Tunisia, West Africa and Syria followed the example of the French colonies which have organised under the leadership of General de Gaulle, the Nazis would forthwith impose on metropolitan France the extreme penalties of defeat. Obviously, however, this is a policy of poor temporising and one which invites final catastrophe for France and her colonies alike. No member of the Vichy Government can be credulous enough to believe that if the Nazis were victorious France would be re-established in liberty or allowed to retain any of her colonies. On the other hand, it is open to the French Empire to make a powerful contribution to the victory of democracy from which alone France has anything to hope. That simple fact makes it impossible either to accept or understand General Weygand’s claim that he is serving his country in endeavouring to “maintain the union of French Africa and metropolitan France.” Metropolitan France meantime is helpless under the Nazi heel. The only effect of the union of which GeneralWeyg'and speaks is to reduce to the same unhappy state colonies which need not be helpless, but might be striking effective blows for the maintenance of their own liberty and the ultimate redemption from bondage of their motherland. The merits of the ease are plainly drawn and it may be hoped that eventually the whole of the French colonies will align themselves with Free France, and in alliance with Britain, in spite of anything that General Weygand or anyone else can do. There should be much to assist and hasten that most desirable development in the moral effect and material outcome of recent events in and around the Mediterranean, not least the victorious efforts of the Greeks in Albania and the smashing blow the Italians have suffered at the hands of British Imperial forces, and Free French forces, in the. Egyptian Western Desert.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAITA19401214.2.15

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 December 1940, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
829

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1940. IN THE SERVICE OF FRANCE. Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 December 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1940. IN THE SERVICE OF FRANCE. Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 December 1940, Page 4

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