GROWING TENSION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 June 1941, Page 6

GROWING TENSION

UNITED STATES & VICHV AMERICANS WARNED TO LEAVE FRANCE. REPLY TO MR CORDELL'“HULL. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, June 7. Americans throughout France have been warned to leave as soon as possible, says the “Daily Mail’s’’ Madrid correspondent. The United Slates Embassy and the staff in Vichy are preparin.y for possible departure within a few days. It is reported that the Vichy Ambassador to Washington has criticised the United Slates' financial policy toward France, and also denied that German troops were in any French Mediterranean possession.

The Foreign Office at Vichy yesterday issued a Note replying to the warning issued in Washington by the State Secretary, Mr Hull, in which it states: "Washington misunderstands France's needs in her difficult situation. The Vichy Government wants to preserve friendly relations with the United States, but the Government of the United States cannot understand that the French Government’s first task in the present particularly difficult situation is io safeguard the vital interests of France and her empire.

"It is surprising to see Mr Hull describe as a policy of aggression and oppression one which is directed against nobody and harms the interests of no other Power. The collaboration with Germany is due only to the desire to establish better relations in Europe and maintain the freedom of the French empire and the lines of communication against all attacks.”

Radio Paris, the Nazi-controlled station in occupied France, last night launched a violent attack on the United States Ambassador to Vichy. Admiral Leahy. It quoted a newspaper article which described Admiral Leahy as a high dignitary of Freemasonry and :■ representative of a nation which allowed. a handful of ignorant immigrants to insult France and Marshal Petain.

The broadcast declared that the Ambassador had become an undesirable person, and added: “On the day our Government hands him his credentials there will be one enemy less on the soil of France.”