Who Sold France?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 259, 9 June 1944, Page 7

Who Sold France?

HEN the United Nations land in France they will go there with tanks and guns but not, as to Italy, with political machinery as well. This we have had both from Mr. Eden and from Mr. Churchill. But we have it also on the authority of The Times and the Manchester Guardian that one of the ordinances General de Gaulle is reported to have ready demands a complete reconstruction of the French press (including press agencies). Holding that France was betrayed and not beaten, deceived and _ bewildered by corrupt newspapers as well as by venial statesmen, he proposes, as soon as any region has been liberated, that all existing newspapers and newspaper plants shall be placed at the disposal of the Resistance Movement. During this preliminary period no person who has co-operated with the enemy will be allowed to work in a newspaper office without a permit from the local press committee, and as soon as possible afterwards committees will examine the records of the newspapers. themselves, . restoring those which closed before June 25, 1940, giving conditional licences to those with clean records which closed before January 1, 1943, and completely abolishing those which carried on after that date. A further ordinance provides (subject to the approval of the Consultative Assembly) that there shall be public declarations of ownership and control, financial statements revealing the sources of all income, and provision for the establish‘ment of trusts or boards of control to ensure proper standards of journalism and protection against pressure from outside. How soon all these things are done will depend, of course, on the speed of the occupation and on the measure of approval given to de Gaulle by the liberated people. But the mere fact that they are proposed indicates that Frenchmen remember what happened before June, 1940, and do not think it sufficient now to get rid of the Germans.