FRANCE & BRITAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 August 1942, Page 4

FRANCE & BRITAIN

THE LANDING AT DIEGO SUAREZ. PATRIOTIC FRENCHMAN’S VIEW. After the British occupation of Diego Suarez, a Frenchman in London broadcast from the 8.8. C. his feelings about the action. All his relatives are in France, including his children, one of them a son seventeen years old. In May, 1940, he took part in the Battle of France as a liaison officer with the British Army. The following is an extract from his talk:— “. . . It is two years since I came over here via Dunkirk. I therefore saw Frenchmen and Englishmen risking their lives side by side. I have stayed here in England because I felt that the only way to help to regain freedom for my country was to continue the fight. That is my state of mind . . . How is it, I said to myself, that when the British land at St Nazaire the French people take their place at the side of the British to help them —unarmed French hurling themselves at the Gormans—whereas at Diego Suarez Frenchmen and Englishmen fight each other to the profit of Germany. And then there was the constant fear that an incident might occur which would lead to such a catastrophe that in spite of everything a deep wound might be inflicted on the Anglo-French alliance. . . It is true that at Diego Suarez a victory was gained, against the common enemy, because the United Nations are now strong enough to protect French territory too weak to defend itself. Madagascar will not be another Indo-China. All French people arc concerned in that, victory, and all the more readily because it was a rapid victory; and it is this that makes it easier for us to keep our emotions under control.”