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SAUSAGES
ticians
and
Piccadilly Arcade,
Perth Tel. B7988
FRANKFURTS PERTH, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1942,
NO. 3,040.
PRICE THREEPENCE
SIXTY-NINTH YEAR.
LEADING CATHOLIC PAPER IN LONDON CLAIMS
Roles of Petain and de Gaulle are Complementary Not Antagonistic Fighting French Movement is of Exclusively Military Character
There is General Agreement that Post -War France Will Be Very Different from Third Republic . . . The exclusive military character of the Fighting French movement was once again emphasised to a reporter of the London "Catholic Herald in an interview with a very high member of General de Gaulle's administrative staff. The paper has consistently endeavoured to show that the roles of Marshall Petain and of General de Gaulle are complementary rather than antagonistic. Petain-much to the fury of the Germans-maintains French independence on French soil by diplomatic and delaying methods; General de Gaulle fights on at the head of Frenchmen whom the Germans cannot blackmail. Maybe all de Gaullists do not maintain this view without qualification, but their ideal is far closer to it than is generally recognised. Both de Gaulle and Petain, for example, are in agreement that the victorious post-war France will be something quite different from the Third Republic, whose rottenness has just been exposed in an objective American analysis, called "Report on France," by Thomas Kernan. manager of the Paris branch of the paper, "Vogue." Kemal.), inciden tally, sympathetically analyses the religious aims of Vichy and their importance for reviving French morale, while explaining how the Germans, who fear such a revival, have attempted to sabotage it, I called on a very high member of General de Gaulle's administrative staff recently to discuss and clarify the policy of the Free French Movement.
"Many people," I pointed out. "associate the French daily paper "France' with the movement, and take their cue from it." He nodded regretfully and added that the paper had nothing whatever to do with de Gaulle officially. He even complained that its views were sometimes even "objectionable:"
My text was the statement of Gen-
/
eral Odic, which appeared in "La France Libre" of February 16: "The role of the Free French Forces," wrote General Odic, "will be the better fulfilled if they become more military and if on the strictly political plane they show themselves to all in France only as the accidental and provisional representatives of the nation." Nlv informant was surprised at first. "I thought it would be hardly necessary to speak on this point he said. "De Gaulle has affirmed it time and again." "Yes," I answered, "but there is a wide misunderstanding of the de Gaulliit movement in this country. Many people think it is political, not military. Then, as you know, such matters cannot he repeated too often." Freeing of France: One Goal, "Well," he said, "de Gaulle must be thought of first and last as a man in the service of France. So must all those who form the movement. There is not time for differences, political or otherwise. These are sunk; and we
For Value and Service
MARSHAL PETAIN, Maintains French independence on French soil by diplomatic and delaying methods.
GENERAL DE GAULLE. Fights at head of Frenchmen whom the Germans cannot blackmail. aim at one goal only: the freeing of France. This is the case most clearly in the colonies. Administration goes on smoothly for the same immediate end."
and its news could be had in ariy English paper. "Another difficulty." 1 went on, "is your propaganda service. It leaves much to be desired. Vichy is mocked and attacked not from the right reasons but from the wrong reasons; because it is authoritarian and "Fascist," whereas everyone knows that Vichy has done excellent work under the circumstances to clean up France and bring in order, decency and better social legislation." My informant pointed out that the propaganda question was not entirely in Free French hands. "It hoped that this may he remedied," he said,
Quarrel With Vichy, "What is your real quarrel with Vichy?" I asked, "It is this," he replied. "A Government cannot compel its people not to want to fight its enemies especially when those enemies are ocupying their country." He strongly reproved Vichy for its policy of outlawing and punishing de Gaullist sympathisers, and threw St. Thomas and Mirabeau at my head in defence of the right to resist such a policy. He failed completely to understand how a man of the mental calibre of Father Sertillanges could back it so wholeheartedly. I suggested that in all this Vichy was playing a difficult diplomatic game, and the last thing it really wanted was the heads of the spirited de
Gaullists. The Germans accused Vichy of being in secret sympathy with de Gaulle. Talking of collaboration, he admitted that collaboration seemed the safest course for many Frenchmen now in France. They followed their leaders. "I disagree, however, with the denial of the right of young men to fight against their homeland's enslavement by Germany; for Germany (I speak as an ordinary Catholic Frenchman) is the negation of all we believe and hope." Catholic Affairs Speaking of Catholic affairs, my in. formant said: "I can say on excellent authority that the position in North Africa from the Catholic viewpoint is happy. Catholics were too wise to push their demands. And the idealism of Frenchmen of several shades of political and religious belief was reflected in the way in which the missions and educated were handled. Before the coming of de Gaulle both had been naturally neglected in the apathy that followed the Armistice. Since this, large funds had been put at the disposal of the missions; and education is being conducted on definite lines."
Murray St.,
Gudfoyle s Hotel Australia Registered at the G.P.O., Perth, for transmission by poet as a newspaper.
Est.Perth 45 years