TERMS WITH NAZIS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 June 1941, Page 5

TERMS WITH NAZIS

DISCUSSED BY THE VICHY CABINET SUGGESTED “COMMON USE” OF NAVAL STATIONS. IN MEDITERRANEAN & WEST AFRICA. LONDON, June 3. The Vichy Cabinet had a second meeting this afternoon. An offieial announcement staled that importance was attached to Hie meeting. ' Earlier in the day. the Cabinet had met to discuss Admiral Darlan’s recent statement about French and British relations. General \\ eygand was present at. this meeting. Certain well-informed circles in Vichy, it is stated, regard the meeting of the Vichy Cabinet as the most important since last summer, when Marshal Petain asked Germany for armistice terms. Vichy also discussed Admiral Darlan's latest negotiations with Germany. A.dmiral Darlan is supposed to have outlined the terms of the proposed agreement submitted by Hitler. These terms, it is stated, propose that certain naval stations—Dakar, Casablanca, Algiers and Beirut —should be used in common by both German and French ships, that Germany should keep Alsace-Lorraine and should continue to occupy the north and west coast of France. On the other side France would benefit at Italy’s expense by the withdrawal of all Italian claims. France’s indemnity would also be reduced by a half or a quarter. Nazi sources claim that France has aligned herself with Germany and would act in the same way as Washington was acting towards London, giving the fullest possible help without entering the war against Britain. A pro-Nazi paper in Paris states that France has reversed her alliance. POLICY OF TREASON DARLAN’S EFFORT TO SWING OPINION. CAN PETAIN APPLY BRAKE? LONDON, June 3. “The Tinies” says that Admiral Darlan is negotiating a FrenchGerman agreement which would be approximate to a peace treaty or a treaty of friendship, stabilising the German-occupied and Germancontrolled areas and opening the naval stations of Dakar, Casablanca, and Algiers (Africa), Villefranche and Sete (southern France) and Beirut (Syria) for common German and French use. This clause would lessen the German demand for the French fleet. The French heavy factories would also become part of the German plan for war production. The “Daily Mail’s” Madrid correspondent says that Admiral Darlan is using the Press and radio of both occupied and unoccupied France in an effort to swing French public opinion behind his policy of undeclared war on Britain. Instancing Crete as a demonstration that Britain is bound to lose. Admiral Darlan is also persistently against the United States and against the American Ambassador to Vichy, Admiral Leahy, personally, because he is reminding France of the dangers of the path which she is following. The situation is so tense, that even in the unoccupied zone numbers of Americans are going to Lisbon. A vital decision must be made within 48 hours, the correspondent says. The question is whether Marshal Petain’s strength and courage can put a brake on Admiral Darlan’s policy. The leader of French West Africa, General Weygand, has arrived from Algiers and conferred with Marshal Petain. DENIAL IN SYRIA “NOT A SINGLE GERMAN SOLDIER ARRIVED.” (Received This Day, 10.10 a.m.) BEIRUT, June 3. A communique says: "Not a single German soldier has arrived to occupy any point in Syria or Lebanon.'