Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JULY 10, 1941. TAKING RISKS WITH VICHY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 July 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JULY 10, 1941. TAKING RISKS WITH VICHY.

<s. element of gambling risk plainly enters into the policy under which the British and American Governments have agreed that limited shipments of oil and other supplies shall be adowed to proceed to French North Africa. There is no complete assurance that these supplies will not pass ultimately to Germany, or will not be used in one way or another for her benefit.’ It- has been argued, however, and not without force, that General Weygand cannot maintain his authority in North Africa without the supplies now being allowed to pass into that territory and that the receipt of these supplies conceivably may enable him to hold out against. German pressure.

Apart from the fact that General Weygand has declared his loyalty to Marshal Petain, nothing very definite is known about* his stand, but he appears not to have accepted completely the policy of collaboration with Germany, (hie 01. the possibilities perceived in France is (hat. Admiral Darlan may be installed as a puppet ruler, upheld by and obedient to the Nazis, while Marshal Petain would become more, than ever a cypher. As Minister of the Interior, Darlan has lately been dismissing large numbers of mayors and other civil officials in France. He is in a position to instal his own friends and agents in positions of detail authority throughout the country and it seems very probable that he is preparing in this way lor his own installation as ostensible head ol the State, though always under Nazi domination and instruction.

It is at least possible that- with events taking this course General Weygand might elect, to do everything in his power to hold North Africa against the Nazis. Although he has made himself a party to the fatuous and discreditable policy —il it can be called a policy—to which the aged Marshal Petain is committed, General Weygand is hardly identified with I he Laval and Darlan faction, the “small, desperate band of Frenchmen who are gambling with their lives, for whom the defeat of Hitler means facing the firing squad.” To an extent at least, General Weygand is still free to choose his course and if he decides eventually to withstand the Nazis the action taken by Britain and the United States in permitting regulated supplies to reach North Africa will prove to have been a wise investment.

A great deal evidently is at stake. The late in the near future of French North and West Africa is bound to have an important bearing on the course of the war in Libya and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean, in the Atlantic and elsewhere. So much is at stake, indeed, that although it is by no means to be taken for granted that General Weygand will range himself against the Nazis, the risks taken in permitting limited supplies meantime 1o proceed to North Africa may be regarded as relatively of minor importance.