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 England's best month, it month of clear days and short nights, the alarm siren was sounded in London only seven times. There were no air raids al 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 in- trepid Old Lady on the Thames.
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 a 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.
Yates
ENT
FROM
NOT WHAT HE ORDERED.
OTHER
OF THE
From
To Vichy
Madrid
This is the sixth of a series of have been nothing more than a articles by the distinguished | military march which would have French dramatist, Henry Bern- brought our troops to Rome, and stein, exiled by the Vichy goo- perhaps to the Brenner Pass. ernment.
was
*
✡
**
*
**
to deprive his his first act was This relief was some-
friend Alexis Leger of his French what puzzling until the
citizenship, his crime having con- sisted of upholding without weak- attack on Russia started.
ness the foreign policy of France and of having remained pro-Eng- The Germans have
After Munich, September, 1938, In April, 1939, Marshal Petain lish, anti-Nazi, anti-Fascist. never engaged in two what we have called Petainism
Ambas- appointed French
One of the first acts of Marshal major engagements at slept again. France was aroused sador to Madrid, where, after a
from her apathy, and there was rather awkward beginning, he Petain, as French Ambassador to the same time. The slow-la surge of self-respect and was treated with the greatest res- Madrid, was to establish a warm ing-down of the bombing national interest which extended pect by General Franco and his friendship with General Stohrer. even to those who felt convinced | brojher-in-law, Serano Suner, the German Ambassador, which of Britain began during that it was impossible to go to who gave lavish dinner parties continued with equal cordiality. the Balkan campaign and war at the time because of the for him. The man who maintain after war broke out in Septem-
disorganisation of the
Frenched such cautious reserve in his ber, 1939. Newspaper photographs gave rise to the suspicion Army, the weakness of French own country, who prudently re- have shown them side by side.
There himself, grew that the Luftwaffe is not and English aviation and English fused to commit
can be no doubt that marshal time on the indifference to the fate of Czecho-
more expansive on foreign soil. from this big enough for a grand-slovakia.
the submission of his considered And while he represented scale offensive on two Industrialists and others who, country abroad, he seemed bent France to a new European order, on destroying its dignity and res- commanded by the Germans, to fronts. This suspicion is up to that time, had been strong-
- or desir-" ly opposed to war moved sudden-pect for its politicians. He derided be the only possible
He represented, confirmed by the nearly into the camp of resistance, French politicians in such terms able result.
Daladier, who had accepted that he shocked the more mode- however, only a feeble minority: paralysis of the Nazi air
He often in France. The outbreak of war Munich as a necessity. became rate Spanish Fascists.
in September found a fine spirit. arms in the West while, head of the party of resistance to
In the
in the country. Efforts to rearm.. face of
France the bombers and Stukas Germany.
in had been strenuous on the part of abrupt shift
1939. Germany had not yet built are attempting to blast a people Laval dropped discreetly
the seventy-ton tanks with which way for the German ad- into the background, and Marshal
she was to break our positions in Petain once more adopted a
May, 1940. I questioned a num- vance in the East.
sphinx-like attitude.
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
❤
*
this the
In the Italian Chamber of De-
ly in
By Henry Bernstein
which insulted the
ism.
1
1
Page
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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 Army, until it had been French response to these demands Charles Maurras in the "Action exposed to eight months of pro- ultaneously because he had been indignant protests and Francaise"
paganda and allowed to rot under THESE FACTS MAKE. cannot. If he could dis- mockery, and in January Dala-¡ French ministers then in power, the influence of insidious Petaln- dier started on a speaking tour mud-slinging articles which, in- pose of those thousands of our North African empire, dorsed by our ambassador, were our prestige as a and thousands of 'planes where he was received, particular harmful to
Tunisia, with great
At this time Daladier, who was en- nation abroad. he has conjured up to im- thusiasm.
Marshal Petain one day told a President of the Council, held two Daladier's trip and his success visitor that he had not been sent portfolios, being at the same time press the world with a
proved extremely annoying to to Spain to run errands, but to Minister of War and Minister of picture of illimitable air the Petain-Laval clan, "It would create an atmosphere sympathetic Foreign Affairs. Patriot to the reserves, his logical be a crime," the marshal declar- to France. This point of view bottom of his heart, Daladier was basically, so... indecisive that ed, "to antagonise Italy."
would have been acceptable if: strategy would be to use 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. this time before Italy. If there daily, by a dozen different means, In December, 1940, he realised fore British and Ameri was not a pro-French majority in lowered the prestige of his gov- that he was being sharply criti- can production reaches Italy, there was an immense anti- ernment in the eyes of the Span- cised for holding the two prin- cipal portfolios when one alone German majority, which included inrds... 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 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 a France when war broke handle affairs between the two portfolios he worked out a strange out, placed Italy in a position of countries. But the marshal always combination. He would appoint two vice-presidents of the Coun- drive. London's quiet having to choose between Ger- opposed that.
many and France, Mussolini He sent empty reports to the cil, Marshal Petain and Herriot Jure which has persisted would hardly have dared uphold Ministry of Foreign Affairs, al- two political adversaries, one man into the first fortnight of the Axis. And if he had, events though, they were always written from the Right, the other from
since then have indicated clear with the utmost courtesy. To M. the Left-who would have a sort⠀⠀⠀
Secretary of State, he isent more over the War Department, the Foreign Affairs." confidential and cordial reports. second over
A
WHAT IT IS
THE FINEST
& SAFEST IN
July despite the thou-ly that an Italian campaign would Alexis Leger, permanent. Under of supervisory power, the Arat HONG KONG
sands of tons of bombs dropped on the Rhine- the limits of Nazi air Always when the marshal went to Petain camo hastily from Madrid land, Bremen and Han-power-and the measure Faris he spent an hour at M. and accepted on the spot,
After accepting Daladler's offer, over, is not accident or re- of British and American Leger's office, discussing matters
freely, When the capitulation however, Potain talked to Laval
(Continued on Paua 10). prieve; rather it marks opportunity.
brought the marshal into power