HOW FRANCE FELL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 60, 16 August 1940, Page 4

HOW FRANCE FELL

from London clarify the reasons why France fell. This is one paper’s comment: which have just arrived "How strong must be the guard against Fifth Columnists and defeatism will be realised from the inside facts about events in France. The decisive day was June 13. On that afternoon the Germans succeeded in dividing the two main French armies. A group of politicians in Paris, none of whom was in the Reynaud Cabinet, and which included Pierre Flandin, Pierre Laval and Georges Bonnet, seized this opportunity to agitate for an understanding with the enemy. They incessantly urged Marshal Petain and General Weygand not to attempt the defence of Paris. The Reynaud faction was powerless to prevent this turn of events, but when the Government was leaving Paris, Georges Mandel, Colonial Minister, was specially requested to see that ex-Premier Laval was not left behind to make contact with the enemy. Mandel got him away in his car. Meanwhile the compromise gang had already established touch with Mussolini through Marshal Petain’s friend, the Spanish Ambassador, and was begging the Duce to get Hitler to concede reasonable terms. That explains why the French took no offensive action on land against Italy on the day Mussolini declared war. Indeed so strong was this political influence that certain bombing machines which had been detailed to raid Genoa and Turin from a French base near Toulon were able to take off on their expedition only with the greatest difficulty. Thus, when the Nazi break through occurred in the Champagne, threatening the Maginot Line, the French had been hopelessly compromised by the intriguers, and a direct approach to Hitler became inevitable. "The Ministers, who had been pursued from Tours to Bordeaux by a hail of bombs, were summoned by Reynaud to discuss a situation about which few

details had been allowed to leak out. It was the blackest hour in French history. "Bitter and stormy discussions shook the Ministry. Reynaud was assailed by those who wanted to seek peace. President Lebrun put on pressure by demanding his resignation. "The army was overwhelmed. Millions of civilian refugees were streaming in every direction and blocking the troops at every turn at a time when the utmost mobility was needed. From hour to hour there was no guarantee against

air attack on the nation’s remaining vital centres. "Late on the Sunday night Reynaud was forced out of office and Marshal Petain became Premier, with General Weygand as Minister of Defence and Paul Baudoin, one of the appeasement supporters, as Foreign Minister. The new war Minister was General Colson, who had assisted Petain at the 1918 Armistice. General Vuillemin, the head of the French Air Force, flatly refused to surrender, and was thrown out. Pierre Laval, co-author with Sir Samuel Hoare of the Abyssinian "peace" plan, was offered the Ministry of Justice and refused it. Mayor Marquet, of Bordeaux, described as the French Oswald Mosley, became Minister of the Interior. The rest of the Cabinet was a selection of Rightists and pacifists. That night Marshal Petain had no difficulty in . persuading his friend General Franco, of Spain, to transmit a message to Germany. France was no longer a fighting nor a whole nation."