4
THE CHINA MAIL, JULY 18, 1941. ·
CHINA MAIL
WINDSOR HOUSE –
RESPITE
June was a quiet month in England. During the whole of what is usually Ingland's best month, a month of clear days and short nights, the alarm siren was sounded in London only seven times. There were no air raids at all. Tired Londoners slept in their beds. In the long twilights they walk- ed in the Green Park and rowed in the Serpentine | as if life were normal again. For a few weeks the nightmare lifted and they had the first calm in- terval since the aerial war began last September to! count the scars on the ravaged face of the trepid Old Lady on the Thames.
2
The Germans had their worst month, pounded night after night and lat- terly by day by the grow- ing forces of the R.A.F. but London enjoyed complete respite and the rest of England suffered only sporadic raids, of constantly diminishing intensity. Over the whole country, the toll of cas- ualties dropped from 5,300 killed in May to no more than 399 killed in June.
never
some-
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PRESENT
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NOT WHAT HE ORDERED.
HIGH
OTHER
OF
From Madrid To Vichy
This is the sixth of a series of articles by the distinguished French dramatist. Henry Bern- stein, exiled by the Vichy gov- ernment.
have been nothing more than a his first act was to deprive his military march which would have friend Alexis Leger of his French brought our troops to Rome, and citizenship, his crime having con- perhaps to the Brenner Pass. sisted of upholding without weak- ness the foreign policy of France and of having remained pro-Eng- lish, unti-Nazi, anti-Fascist.
Was
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X
✡
**
After Munich, September, 1938, what we have
In April, 1939, Marshal Petain called Petninism
appointed French Ambus- slept again. France was aroused sador to Madrid, where, after a One of the first acts of Marshal from her apathy, and there was rather awkward beginning, he Petain, as French Ambassador to il Surge of self-respect and
was treated with the greatest res- Madrid, was to establish a warm national interest which extended that even to those who felt convinced brother-in-law.
pect by General Franco and his friendship with General Stohrer, Serano Suner, the German Ambassador, which it was impossible to go to
who gave lavish war at the time because of the
dinner parties; continued with equal cordiality for him. The man who maintain- after war broke Army,
out in Septem- of the French
ed such cautious reserve in his ber, 1939. Newspaper photographs the weakness of French and English aviation and English
own country, who prudently re- have shown them side by side. fused to commit himself, grew There can be no doubt that slovakia.
more expansive on foreign soil.] from this time on the marshal. And while he represented his considered the submission of Industrialists and others who, country abroad, he seemed bent France to a new European order,
disorganisation
indifference to the fate of Czecho-
This relief was what puzzling until the attack on Russia started. The Germans have engaged in two major engagements
at the same time. The slow- ing-down of the bombing of Britain began during the Balkan campaign and gave rise to the suspicion that the Luftwaffe is not big enough for a grand- scale offensive on two fronts. This suspicion is up to that time, had been strong on destroying its dignity and res- commanded by the Germans, to
ly opposed to war moved sudden-pect for its politicians. He derided be, the only possible or desir confirmed by the nearly into the camp of resistance. French politicians in such terms able result. He represented, paralysis of the Nazi air Ďaladfer, who had accepted that he shocked the more mode- however, only a feeble minority arms in the West while head of the party of resistance to
as a necessity. became rate Spanish Fascists. He often in France. The outbreak of war:
In September found a fine spirit' the bombers and Stukas Germany. In the face of this
in the country. Efforts to rearm. abrupt shift on the part of the
France had been strenuous in. 1939. Germany had not yet built the seventy-ton tanks with which she was to break our positions in May, 1940. I questioned a num- ber of soldiers who were starting out for the front. They all be- lieved in victory. The spirit of the people was such, Indeed, that Germany dared not attack the French Army until it had been exposed to eight months of pro paganda and allowed to rot under the influence of insidious, Petaini
are attempting to blast a way for the German ad- vance in the East.
Munich
people Laval dropped discreetly into the background, and Marshal Petain once more adopted sphinx-like attitude.
In the Italian Chamber of De-
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By Henry Bernstein
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It looks very much as if puties violent demands were made Hitler does not bomb for the return of Tunisia, Corsica England and Russia sim- and, eventually, of Nice to Italy. quoted passages from articles by French response to these demands Charles Maurras in the "Action ultaneously because he had been indignant protests and Francaise" which insulted the cannot. If he could dis- mockery, and in January Dala- French ministers then in power,
dier started on pose of those thousands of
a speaking tour mud-slinging articles which, in our North African empire,! where he was received, particular- harmful to
dorsed by our ambassador, were ism, and thousands of 'planes y in
our prestige as Tunisia, with great en- nation abroad. he has conjured up to im- thusiasm.
At this time Daladier, who was Marshal Petain one day told a President of the Council, held two press the world with a Daladier's trip and his success visitor that he had not been sent portfolios, being at the same time
proved extremely annoying picture of illimitable air the Petain-Laval clan. It would create an atmosphere sympathetic Foreign Affairs, Patriot to the to to Spain to run errands, but to Minister of War and Minister of reserves, his logical be a crime," the marshal declar to France. This point of view bottom of his heart, Daladier was
ed, "to antagonise Italy." strategy would be to use
would have been acceptable if: basically so indecisive that One is at a loss to know why 1. Instead of creating this at-both departments were suffering them without limit be. France should have trembled atmosphere Marshal Petain had not from his fundamental weakness. fore British and Ameri- was not a pro-French majority in lowered the prestige of his gov that he was being sharply criti
this time before Italy. If there dally, by a dozen different means, In December, 1940, he realised can production reaches Italy, there was an immense anti-ernment in the eyes of the Span- cised for holding the two prin- the peak. The truth must the King, the Pope, many politi-2, If Marshal Petain had agreed was a staggering job for a man in
German majority, which included fards.
cipal portfolios when one alone" be that he has not the clans and almost all the people to have an important diplomat to war time. In order to keep the forces for this double out, placed Italy in a position of countries. But the marshal always combination. He would appoint Had France, when war broke handle affairs between the two portfolios he worked out a stronge drive London's quiet having to choose between Ger-
opposed that.
two vice-presidents of the Coun- many and France, Mussolini June which has persisted would hardly have dared, uphold Ministry of Foreign Affairs, al- two political adversaries, on & SAFEST IN
He sent empty, reparts to the cil, Marshal Petain and Herriot- into the first fortnight of the Axis. And if he had, events though they were always written from the Right, the other from July despite the thou since then have indicated clear with the utmost courtesy. To M. the Left who would have a sort ly that an Italian campaign would Alexis Leger, permanent Under of supervisory power, the first sands of tons of bombs
Secretary of State, he sent more over the War Department, the HONG KONG. dropped on the Rhine- the limits of Nazi air conadential and cordial, reports, second over Foreign Affairs
Bremen and Han- power-and the measure Faris he spent an hour at M. and accepted on the spot.
"Always when the marshal went to Petain came hastily from Madrid land, over, is not accident or re- of British and American Leger's office, discussing matters After accepting Daladier's offer, freely. When the capitulation | however, Petain talked to Laval prieve; rather it marks opportunity.
brought the marshal into power (Continued on Page: 10)-
WHAT IT IS
THE FINEST