WILL PAY DEARLY

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21229, 27 September 1940, Page 7

WILL PAY DEARLY

FRENCH TRAITORS OFFER TO BRITAIN FIGHT SIDE BY SIDE (Oniclal Wireless) (Received Sept. 27, 11 a.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 26 The following message was received by the Prime Minister, Mr Winston Churchill, from Duala today: “Frenchmen in the Cameroons, who have learnt of recent events at Dakar, take this opportunity of affirming to the British Prime Minister their determination to continue the struggle against Germany side by side with the British Government. “In their view Frenchmen subservient to Vichy are Hitler’s allies and are accepting the leadership of traitors who will one day pay dearly for their treason.” Mr Churchill’s Reply Mr Churchill sent the following reply: “I have received the telegram sent by the representatives in the French Cameroons of ex-service-men of the last and present war, of officers and soldiers of the forces, administrators, civil servants, doctors, police, merchants colonists, planters and missionaries, declaring their intention to fight on until victory is won. “In the name of the British Government I wish to thank them for their encouraging message and tell them of the pleasure it gives me to know that they will continue the struggle side by side with the British Empire until France is freed and restored and the shadow of German tyranny is driven from the face of the earth for ever.”

AXIS MANOELYRES

DAKAR THE KEY POINT FRENCH COLONIAL EMPIRE “RIPE FOR DISSOLUTION” (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, Sept. 25 The events at Dakar, says the Yorkshire Post, must be viewed as part of a wide web of strategic manoeuvre stretching from Africa through the Mediterranean to Indochina. “in the view of the Axis Powers and Japan, the French Colonial Empire is ripe for dissolution,” says the article. “ Germany and Italy mean to use some of it for establishing a new order in Africa and the Near East, and Japan dreams of a new order in Asia which will include the Dutch East Indies and perhaps the Philippines. The privileges she is trying to secure in Indo-China are not required merely to help her war on the Chinese. “ These far-reaching prospects are hidden from the people of France, who are told that the Vichy Government is determined to keep the French Empire intact. All that the men of Vichy are in fact doing is to preserve all they can for the convenience of the aggressor countries, whose intrigues they are powerless to restrain. Ribbentrop’s visit to Rome was concerned with the Axis plans for action throughout a vast area from Syria to Dakar, and Senor Ramon Suner is in Berlin receiving instructions as to the role mapped out for Spain in these ambitious undertakings. She is to be given territory in French Morocco in return for assisting in an assault on GibralWhat Hitler Wants “ Musolini wants Tunis and Syria from France, together with Egypt and the Sudan. West Africa is preserved for Hitler. He would be able to look across the Atlantic toward the Americas, a prospect which the New York Times, writing on Dakar, has not overlooked. He would be well placed, also, to set about ‘ liberating ’ South Africa, with General Hertzog’s aid. “ Dakar is the key point of these widespread schemes. If General de Gaulle’s action turns out well, not only will West Africa be saved for France, but the rest of the French Colonial Empire will be powerfully influenced to abandon the useless protection of Vichy.”