FRENCH LEADERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 May 1943, Page 3

FRENCH LEADERS

AGREEMENT REPORTED CONDITIONS OF PROVISIONAL RULE. SAFEGUARDS OF NATIONAL liberty: i ßy Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, May 10. The Algiers radio reported. that General Giraud accepted proposals from the Fighting French representative, General Catroux, under which Generals Giraud and de Gaulle would in turn preside over a French executive committee which would have power to decide all essential matters till France is liberated.

The committee would then be replaced by a provisional council selected. through general councils, and a national election would be held when all the French prisoners of war and the deported workers had returned to France. It is disclosed in London that General Giraud, in a recent memorandum to General de Gaulle, in which he accepted the Fighting French proposal, stated: “We shall preside in turn over the meetings of the committee and council. There will be no question of a triumvirate. On the contrary, our responsibilities will be merged in the collective responsibility of the committee and council. We shall sign decrees together, and we shall participate on the same level as the other members in the deliberations and decisions of the two bodies.” General Giraud also stated: “There is one point on which our complete agreement is essential: namely, that the French people, from the moment of their liberation, should establish a provisional Government by legislative means which would have indispensable legitimate and political authority derived from the fact of its origin in law. In order that this fundamental problem might be solved, the aide memoirs of April 1 proposed to ensure the return to. legality at the time of the re-entry into France by leaving the appointment of a provisional Government to an assembly of delegates from the consols-general in conformity with the Trevenue law of 1872.

“After studying the situation carefully, I see no other way for France, in agreement with its laws, to return to a normal, legitimate and free regime. Since the National Committee has offered no objection to this course, I have no doubt of obtaining its full agreement on this question, which is at the same time a point of departure for our reunion and the goal of our common efforts. Consequently, I consider that one of the first acts of the council must be to address a proclamation to the people of France which will give a solemn undertaking to the nation to make it clear that the law of 1872 will be put into operation when French territory is liberated under the conditions set forth in my memorandum of April 1.” Referring to the relations between the council and the future provisional Government, General Giraud stated: “A distinction must be maintained between a council having its origin in necessity and a provisional Government resulting from the laws of France. The council will represent the national effort and continue to depend for the liberation of France on American and British assistance. Liberated France, represented by persons accredited by the provisional Government, will have an historical place equal to that of England and the Unitecl States General Giraud emphasised that the abolition of the Vichy laws must be complete and that totalitarian associations should be suppressed or prohibited.