Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, MAY 26, 1941. A GREAT SHIP GOES.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 May 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, MAY 26, 1941. A GREAT SHIP GOES.

JJITTEIv regret will be awakened throughout. the Empire by the loss ol’ the battle-cruiser Hood, in action oil’ the coast ol Greenland. Sorrow will be lelt most ol all lor the late of the gallant shift’s company of more than 1,300 officers and men, of whom, as reports stand, lew can have been saved. Combining as she did great, striking power with the high speed of 32 knots an hour, the Hood of necessity was very much more vulnerable than our heavily-armoured but slower battleships. Even so, however, there was extraordinary ill-fortune in the fact that an enemy shell found and exploded the magazine ol the battle-cruiser.

Although Britain Ims a great and growing naval preponderance, the loss of Ihe Hood admittedly is serious Irom the point of view of effective, and available strength as well as in other respects. Distinguished from oilier capital ships of her period by her speed, I he 42.000-ton battle-cruiser had taken and might have continued to take a valuable part against an elusive enemy who has to be sought and pursued over wide stretches of sea in many parts of the world. It must be hoped that Hie shot that found her magazine will not long go unavenged.

As news stands at t ime of writing, t he enemy forces engaged off Greenland are being pursued and Ihe Navy is straining every nerve to bring them to close action. Aircraft ol the Flpet Air Arm are stated to have made at least one hit with a torpedo on a unit of the enemy squadron, which includes Germany’s newest battleship, the Bismarck. The fact that this ship lias been risked so far from her base shows how eager the Nazis are to disorganise if they can the system ol' allied Arctic communications which is being developed, between the United States and Britain, by way of Greenland and Iceland. It has an important bearing on the position and outlook’ that the United States has formally taken Greenland under its protection, though without prejudice Io Danish sovereignty, under what has been described as a. necessary extension.of the Alqnroe Doctrine.

THE BETRAYAL OF FRANCE.

QUOTING a wise and experienced Frenchman, now a member of the organisation headed by Gen'eral de Gaulle, Mr V. ickhani Steed has given in a broadcast an explanation of the policy of the men of Vichy "which to a point is convincing. According to the Fremdiman in question, il is from motives ol personal vanity that Marshal Petain and his colleagues are placing their country and its resources increasingly at the disposal ol Nazi Germany in the hope of bringing about the defeat of Great Britain. These unworthy rulers of France, their countryman declared, are aware that they made a fatal blunder in not carrying on the struggle in the French Empire and with all the resources left after metropolitan France lurid been invaded, but they are too vain to admit their blunder. Instead, because they think that only the defeat of Britain can justify the course they have taken, they are determined to do everything in I heir power to bring about that defeat.

This, of course, does not cover all the ground. , Pierre Laval, for instance —a man who is doing much Io shape I In l present, policy of France, though he is not formally a member ol the Vichy Government —has long been branded plainly as one who hopes Io establish his personal power ami fortunes on the broken ruins of the French Republic. It is unlikely that even in the earliest stage of flu l war Laval dreamt of playing any other part than that of a traitor. What part the senile Petain has in the process of treason is even now uncertain. In any case he counts for little.

It is much more important and more serious that the Vichy Vice-Premier, .Admiral Darlan, who was once classed as tin honest and loyal Frenchman, though no friend of Britain, has now aligned himself irrevocably with the traitors and defeatists. Any possible doubt is cleared up by his broadcast speech, reported on Saturday, though his position was Io all intents and purposes defined a month or two ago, when he threatened to use French warships in convoying supplies through the British blockade and departed from the truth in crediting Germany with a generous concession in releasing a quantity of wheat to unoccupied France. The 1 ruth, which Admiral Darlan deliberately suppressed, was that no concession whatever was made by the Germans. Wheat was sent to unoccupied Franco as part of a barter arrangement under which unoccupied France undertook’ to send to the occupied zone—where the Germans are in a. position to requisition anything they like—large quantities of live stock, oil. vegetables and wine.

In his latest broadcast, Admiral Darlan has again made a mockery of truth in stilting that Hitler did not ask for any colonial territory and did not ask that France should declare war on Britain. The obvious reason for Hitler’s abstention, assuming that it has been reported faithfully, is that Admiral Darlan and his Vichy confederates have already handed over French colonial territory to Germany and in that and many other ways are assisting the Nazi war effort. It would, of course, be foolish to place any faith in Admiral Darlan’s declaration that he would not hand over the French fleet Io anvone.

It is now plain Io all the world that France is in the hands of men who have betrayed her for their own base ends. While they profess to be anxious above all things to safeguard the interests of France, these men in fact are doing everything in their power Io ensure her present and future enslavement to an enemy sworn to destroy her. Instead of upholding French neutrality, they are going as far as they dare towards involving France in the war on Iho side of Germany and against her former allies. In all history there is no record of anv baser or more sordid belraval.

Disarmed and helpless, the people of metropolitan France unhappily are in no position meantime to take action against their betrayers. In the French Umpire much might still be accomplished towards the defeat" of Nazi Germany and its hirelings at Vichy ami in contributing. to the democratic- victory in which France has her only hope. Recent and current news raises little prospect, however, of any concerted movement in the colonies against the betrayal of France. In Syria. General Deniz Ims made it plain that he is prepared to walk the path ol' dishonour with the men of Vichy Io the end. and stories of a continued infiltration of German “tourists” into North Africa hardly encourage anticipations ol' early and effective action on behalf of France in that region.

Al. di- Bi’inon. the notorious Fill h-( 'olinnnisl who is now (hi* Vichy “Ambassador” in Paris, was reported no! long ago as sisting that while Germany was not demanding naval bases in North Africa, there wen- some German control commissions in that territory ami in Morocco in particular. He went on: — If we already believe that England has lost the war and if. as we should do. we consider the interests of our country, then we should certainly come to an agreement witli Germany about collaboration in Africa. II is to our advantage that, at the time when British influence is collapsing, we should associate in the minds of the natives, who are so sensitive Io force, the old prestige of France and the prestige of victorious Germany.

Whatever precisely may be happeiiiiie: in North Africa, llii obviously is an accurate statement <>i the policy \ ichy i: pursuinn' generally in its relations with Nazi Germany.