ATLANTIC TANGLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 December 1941, Page 3

ATLANTIC TANGLE

STATES OF FRENCH ISLANDS

UNITED STATES SEEKING SOLUTION.

OVERWHELMING VOTE CAST FOR FREE FRANCE. NEW YORK, December 27.' The Washington correspondent of the New York “Herald-Tribune” says that the Secretary of State, Mr Hull, will investigate the possibilities of solving the St. Pierre and Miquelon tangle so as to restore the sovereignty of the islands to Vichy and simultaneously •ensure Allied control of the islands’ powerful radio station. For some time Britain and the United States have been concerned by the activities of Radio St. Pierre, which has broadcast information valuable to the enemy.

The Prime Minister of Canada, Mr Mackenzie King, said tn New York yesterday that the Canadian Government would co-operate fully with the United States and Britain in any diplomatic action resulting from the occupation of the two islands by the Free French. He added that the occupation was neither anticipated nor approved by Canada. After confirming that he did not know about Vice-Admiral Muselier’s intentions to occupy the islands, Mr Mackenzie King said that no agreement, however, had existed with Canada regarding maintaining the islands’ status quo. The inhabitants of St. Pierre gave an ovation to Vice-Admiral Muselier when he attended a ceremony at the war memorial. Vice-Admiral Muselier has appointed M. Alain Savary as administrator. The Vichyite Governor Debournat has been placed under protective arrest pending a decision in his case.

The St. Pierre correspondent of the Associated Press of America states that the Free French ships which occupied

St. Pierre and Miquelon left an eastern Canadian port on December 22, together with other Free French vessels, the present whereabouts of which has not been disclosed.

It was officially stated in Vichy that the Government views with satisfaction the public condemnation by the United States of the de Gaullist seizure of the island of St. Pierre, which is in contradiction of United States assurances regarding the maintenance of the status quo of the French possessions in the New World.

The Free French authorities at St.' Pierre disclosed that Vice-Admiral Muselier, after landing, posted throughout the city proclamations announcing: “I have come by order of General de Gaulle, to permit you to participate in a plebiscite choosing between Free France and the Powers which have humiliated and martyred our country.”

The plebiscite in St. Pierre and Miquelon resulted in a 98 per cent vote in favour of the Free French. Votes for the Free French numbered 650 out of a total of 760. Ten were for the Axis and 100 were adjudged void.