FRENCH REACTION

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21215, 11 September 1940, Page 6

FRENCH REACTION

Behind Marshal Petain’s reconstruction of the Vichy Government there is probably much more than the force of habit that impelled the old France to change its Government with such monotonous regularity. The reason in this case is believed to be the natural reaction of the French people to the blow that recently befel them. Petain, under the stern eye of Hitler, is compelled to crush any returning independence at the first sign. It must be obvious to Europe as it is to the British Empire that French opinion has swung back substantially, as has been evidenced by the declarations of the French Equatorial African territories. Frenchmen at home, too, have recovered from the first overwhelming sense of disaster and are beginning to look to the future.

Petain by sending General Weygand to North Africa has acknowledged his recognition of the change in at least French colonial opinion. Weygand’s task is to attempt to “ stop the rot.” What will be the nature of his reception in Africa ? In the territories on the north coast he may retain his influence for a time, but the scope of the Vichy Government’s control is steadily being narrowed. In French Morocco, Algeria and Tunis, French opinion can still be controlled by force because those territories are within reach of Italian arms, but as the pendulum swings back even they will probably follow Equatorial Africa into the Allied camp when the Italian armed oversight is weakened.

Even in France itself events have not shaped themselves quite as Germany wished and the Nazi Press is constantly attacking the Vichy Government for alleged lack of sympathy with German aspirations. No doubt Petain has yielded to pressure and reformed his Government according to German demands. Among the nations of western Europe a strange relationship exists. France and Holland have severed diplomatic relations because the Dutch representatives at Vichy have been reporting too openly and honestly on the actions of the Petain Government. It is evident that Dutch public opinion has maintained its independence to a far greater extent than the French. In the Dutch case, of course, there has been no formal acceptance of armistice terms but merely a surrender in the face of superior force.