FRENCH AFRICA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 March 1941, Page 5

FRENCH AFRICA

LEADERS CONFER ON DEFENCE QUESTIONS COMPLETE AGREEMENT REPORTED. ADMIRAL DARLAN’S CONVOY THREAT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, March 11. The Vichy correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain says Hie official French news agency announced that Petain, Admiral Darlan, and Genera! Wevgaiid reached complete agreement on questions relating to the defence of French Africa. Reliable sources believe that this included resistance to Axis demands regarding the naval base of Bizerta. The German-controlled Paris radio, referring to Admiral Darlan’s threat to convoy merchantmen, declared that this was not a possibility but a certainty. ' It is authoritatively stated in London that this latest example of German propaganda supports the view that Germany desires a clash between the British and French fleets. Admiral Darlan’s voice is indistinguishable from Germany’s voice, not because he is necessarily antiBritish, but because he is not in a position to make an independent' statement. It is recalled that Admiral Darlan in his last message to the fleet last summer as a free Frenchman said that his later statements might be made under intolerable compulsion.

The British Ministry of Economic Warfare, referring to Admiral Darlan’s statement that he may order the convoying of French ships, said the matter was being examined in London and it could be assumed that the subject was also under discussion in Washington, the 8.8. C. stated this morning. It is pointed out that a number of firms in unoccupied France are working on orders for the German High Command and that steps have been taken at French unoccupied ports to see that certain goods, such as cereals, oils and phosphates from French North Africa are sent to Germany without delay. There is evidence of German infiltration in French North Africa. Eighty military and economic experts have recently arrived at Casablanca. TAKEN BY NAZIS IMPORTS FROM NORTH AFRICA. PAID FOR WITH WORTHLESS CREDITS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, March 11. An interesting sidelight on the statement on the British blockade yesterday by the French Vice-President, Admiral Darlan, and an impressive commentary on the repercussions of the German control of French colonies is given in an article in the current number of “The Economist,” which demonstrates that as long as France is under the German heel the resources of French North Africa will inevitably be drained off. Continuing, “The Economist” says: “Nowhere is the inflationary effect of Germany’s policy or spoliation more apparent than in France. “The industrial areas and the best agricultural land are in occupied France. A high percentage of all harvests for 1940 was requisitioned—in the case of sugar beet the percentage was 100. What is bought is paid for either in Reichmark or in Kashienmark, fixed at the entirely arbitrary rate of 20 francs to one mark, both currencies representing claims on German supplies which either do not exist or will never be made available.” After examining the character of France’s trade with her colonies, “The Economist” says: “On the whole the balance between the exports to and imports from France remained fairly steady when allowance was made for the extent of French investment in the Empire, but the situation of interdependence was radically altered by the French collapse. The whole basis of interchange goods was destroyed for France had nothing more to give the colonies. Even the industries in occupied France were working short time or not at all. The economic life in the regions accessible to the colonies —in Vichy France—was barely functioning. MARSEILLES’ IMPORTS. “Nevertheless, goods continued and still continue to arrive at Marseilles from Africa. The colonies cannot break off their trading habits of over a decade, specially when there is no obvious alternative market. Yet there is this great difference. The old balance between imports and exports is lost, and for the first time the goods arriving at Marseilles far exceed the cargoes leaving that port. "Moreover, there is strong evidence to show that the Germans take a sizeable percentage of any supplies reaching Marseilles. In other words, the trade between France and her colonies is conforming to the general pattern of German Europe. The French colonies are sending foodstuffs, wine, meat, fats, vegetable oils, phosphates and other materials to France, and of these a major part finds its way either to the markets or the reserve store of the Reich. “It is conceded that little is left for Franco, but in either case the problem of payment is shelved. In return for the steady draining away of all the economic resources the only payment takes the form of mounting franc balances in Vichy France.”