The Wilmington morning star., 1940-09-29
Bruce Cations
In Washington
BY BRUCE CATION
(Star News) Washington
CORRESPONDENT

WASHINGTON.-Gaston Henri-Haye, tn e,
new, smooth, English-slinging French ambas-
sador, has been sent to this country BY the
Petain government to sell America two bills
of goods
l. That France will starve unless gener-
GUS America comes to the rescue and that. this
generosity will not inure to the benefit of Hit
Ter in his war on Britain.
2.-That the government he represents is
not a Nazi government, nor a mere puppet of
the conquering Germans.
AS to the Overwhelmingly for Henri
Haye-cables recently printed here set forth
that Germany had made a formal demand
upon the Petain government for a substantial
part of the food and raw materials in unoc-
cupied France and for a goodly part of what
France may be able to import in the future.
OF course this was denied.
The second idea the ambassador wants to
sell America will also not bear much scrutiny.
Almost every move his government has made
has been plain imitation of Nazi methods.
Without a vote of the people, republican par
lamentary government was wiped out.
ARMY CLIQUE
SURROUNDS PETAIN
Just as Hitler grabbed the fortunes of refu-
gees, so has the Petain government. Initial
ing Hitler and Mussolini, Petain's government
has made a pretty good start at putting anti
Semitic doctrines into practice.
Moves have been started to squelch the
trades union movement. The men who are
gathering at Vichy and throwing their weight
about as people of influence with the Petain
government are the same kind who ruled
France and perpetrated the Captain Dreyfus
tragedy-a clique of army men, faded aris-
tocrats and rich reactionaires.
HITLER WANTS
VICTIMS
But the most revelatory thing of all is the de-
tention of Marshal Gamelin, former premiers
Daladier and Reynaud and former Minister
OF the Interior Georges Mandel. The voice
may be the voice of Petain, but the febrile
hand that pulls the strings is that of Adolf
Hitler. Petain and his crowd may want scape-
goats for Frances overwhelming defeat, but
Hitler wants victims. Look at the record
Kurt Won Schuschnigg, last chancellor of the
Austrian republic, wanted to preserve his coun-
try's independence. When Hitler grabbed Aus
tria, the first thing he did was to make
Schuschnigg a prisoner for the high crime of
trying to resist the plans of the German dicta.
tor. Schuschnigg is still in prison.
when Hitler violated his pledged word and
grabbed Bohemia and Moravia, he tried to
lay violent hands on President Eduard Benes.
the lase chief executive of the Czechoslovak
republic. Bue Benes escapes the net.
When Nazi arms by stealth and by treach.
cry invaded Norway and when King Haakon
refused to come to hi, Nazi a~viators by Hit
ier's orders tried to capture him and failing
that, to bomb him. Haakon escaped the bombs
and the Nazi agents and got away to England.
1t has been suggested that Petain and his
cabinet are helpless in all these matters. but
IL comes to the same thing whether the gov.
eminent is a Nazi model or a Nazi puppet. It
aoes not represent the freely spoken will of
ule french people-the people whose slogan
for $50 years had been-"Libertv. Eo,,aiitv
Fraternity"