PROBLEM OF FOOD

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21371, 15 March 1941, Page 9

PROBLEM OF FOOD

CONDITIONS IN FRANCE THE BRITISH BLOCKADE V!CHY=NAZI ACTIVITIES (Omcrai wireless) (Received March 15, 3.15 p.m.) RUGBY, March 14 In the United States, as in Britain, consideration is given by the press to the question of whether, without weakening the effectiveness of Britain’s blockade, some relaxation should be permitted to improve the food position in unoccupied France. New York reports conversations yesterday between representatives of the State Department and the American Red Cross and officials of the British Embassy on the possibilities of carrying vital supplies to French children. There is growing evidence of appreciation in the United States of the difficulties of translating any action of sympathy with the people in unoccupied France, who, it is recognised, are suffering primarily from the effects of wholesale spoliation and looting by the Germans. The difficulties of the immediate problem are increased owing to the readiness shown by the Vichy Government to collaborate with their oppressors, the exposure of whose policy of starving France and putting the blame on the British blockade is now complete. Admiral Darlan’s threat to use the French Navy to convoy supplies is clearly of German inspiration, its purpose being to cause a clash between the British and French Navies. Nazis Control Vichy The German control of the Vichy Government is now widely recognised.

Writing in the Daily Express, the French journalist, M. Andre Bertoux, who strongly argues against lifting the blockade, says the French people have noticed that Admiral Darlan’s statement was made immediately after the Vichy Cabinet meeting, and that the statement was mentioned by Admiral Darlan as an outcome of that meeting, but they were not slow in noticing that his statement was anticipated the previous day by the Nazi-controlled radio in Paris, while Admiral Darlan was actually travelling from Paris to, Vichy and a few hours after he had talked with Abetz and M. de Brinon in Paris. M. Bertoux comments: “A fine Cabinet meeting indeed, whose decisions can be announced twentyfour hours in advance by a foreign Power.” Meanwhile German propaganda against the blockade has become increasingly active and with all the scopes of press and radio under German control unsuspecting persons are apt to mistake this inspired propaganda from the occupied territories as an expression of the true voice of their people. One noticeable feature is that every concession, however slight, towards relaxation of the blockade, lias been followed by an immediate intensification of the anti-blockade propaganda. Relief to Germany Thus the limited concession granted to the passage of the steamships Cold Harbour and Exmouth, far from being regarded as a gesture of goodwill to unoccupied France, had been seized as a sign of weakness, and the starvation plea has since been exploited to the full to serve the dual purpose of relieving Germany of some of her immediate food anxieties and distracting attention from the continued intensified system of German looting and other forms of exploitation of the occupied territories. The Spectator, discussing Admiral Darlan’s threat, says: “ The practibility of lifting the blockade raises important technical questions and calls for a careful and unemotional examination of them. The journal New Statesman says it is certain that of the supplies which Britain now allows to enter Marseilles more than half has already been sent to Germany. It favours a counter to the propaganda that comes through Admiral Darlan’s mouth by a request for his specific proposals, and suggests a statement on behalf of the Uritish Government of readiness to discuss all practical matters in consultation with the Governments of France and the Unitea Staics. It is, however, emphatically declared in all quarters mat the effectiveness of the blockade must not be permitted to suffer The comment of the Vichy correspondent of the Zueiicher Zeitung adds weight to these opinions. The correspondent states: “ The economical situation in France in respet to wheat and grain is very serious, and it can, thereiore, be understoou that Vichy should contemplate extraordinary measures, but on the other hand the French point of view is not quite correct, as supplies of grain which might reach French ports in the Mediterranean, despite the British blockade, would only partly go to the benefit of France.”