AGAINST DE GAULLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 January 1943, Page 4

AGAINST DE GAULLE

FRENCH NORTH AFRICAN NEWSPAPERS PHOTOGRAPHS OF GENERAL CUT OUT. FROM CONFERENCE GROUP. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.10 p.m.) LONDON, January 27. “So far as the North African Press is concerned, General de Gaulle might just as well have stayed away from the Casablanca Conference,” says the British United Press Algiers correspondent. “The newspapers not only cut out his photograph from a group of Mr. Churchill, President Roosevelt, General Giraud and himself, but buried in an inconspicuous corner the fact that he was there at all. Every Algiers newspaper carried a large photograph of Mr. Churchill, President Roosevelt and General Giraud, with General Giraud sitting in the centre. The newspapers stated that General Giraud discussed plans for French North African participation in the war, adding that he had obtained promises from President Roosevelt of priority in war weapons. WAR EQUIPMENT CONCEALED FROM GERMANS. STATEMENT BY GENERAL NOGUES. (Received This Day, 11.35 a.m.) LONDON, January 27. A claim that he obstructed the German Disarmament Commission in North Africa for two years, an,d succeeded in concealing much modern armament belonging to the French Army in Morocco, is made by General Nogues in an interview with the “Daily Mail’s” correspondent, M. Ward Price. General Nogues added that not a single case of betrayal occurred. As a result he was able, after the Allied landing, to send 15,000 troops from Morocco to fight in Tunisia, together with tanks and guns saved from German confiscation. “I was able,” he said, “to keep Morocco free from German penetration, so that it may now serve as a starting point for a campaign to liberate France.”

As the first tangible result of the meetings between Generals de Gaulle and Giraud, missions will be exchanged between the Fighting French in London and General Giraud’s headquarters in North Africa, says the Press Association’s diplomatic correspondent. The missions will be small and will comprise mainly military and economc liaison officers, who will not deal with the complex political questions which still exist. The decision to appoint the mission was taken at a meeting of the French National Council, to which General de Gaulle, after his return to Britain, fully reported on his meetings with General Giraud.