Evening star., 1940-10-27
If France Goes Axis

our Government over the prospects
OF French entry into the war against
Britain is a good measure of the
gravity with which the State De-
partment views the current Franco
German negotiations.
Even though the men of Vichy do
not fully surrender to German pres
sure, the outlook is still a troublous
one. Suppose, for instance, that, while
not formally declaring war against
Britain, France permits the use of
her air and naval bases by the Axis
powers. 1t is difficult to believe that
Britain would tolerate this anoma-
lous situation. French-held Syria
would. under such circumstances be
a deadly threat to Britain's none-too-
certain hold on Palestine, the Suez
Canal and Egypt, already menaced
by Italian pressure from Libya and
Ethiopia. Should French ports on
the Atlantic coasts of Morocco and
West Africa, from CaSablanca to
Dakar, become German air bases and
submarine nests, Britain's vital sea-
lanes around the Cape of Good Hope
and with South America would be
threatened in equally intolerable
fashion.
1t is moral certainty, therefore,
that Britain would be forced to strike
quickly and hard in both regions, to
say nothing of possible actions
against French ports in the Western
Mediterranean. We should then wit
ness series of attacks upon French
defensive forces even graver than the
naval actions at Oran and Dakar
which did so much to drive
wedge of bitterness between the
two former allies. The upshot of all
this new battling and bloodshed
could hardly fail to drive France
into full-fledged hostilities against
Britain. Indeed, this is undoubtedly
the German calculation, if it be true
that Hitler has shown Marshal Pc
tain some seeming consideration
Compared with those Old World is
sues, contingent problems of the
French possessions in the New World
are less serious and more easily solv-
able, though naturally these latter
claim a larger share of our attention.
Under the declarations of policy
adopted at the Havana Conference
by the Western Hemisphere powers,
the United States would be entitled
to take action in order to prevent
any change in sovereignty or actual
status which would endanger the
peace of this hemisphere German
use of New World bases, even though
still technically French, would GER
talnly not be permitted. There would
probably be an American occupa-
tion of the French West India
Islands, Martinique and Guadeloupe,
together with the French colony of
Cayenne or French Guiana on the
South American mainland Perhaps
this would be done with formal par
ticipation by Latin American forces.
Regarding the small French islands
Of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, off
Newfoundland, joint American and
Canadian action might be in order.
It is hard to believe that the local
French forces would offer real resist
ance to such actions, and even if a
show of resistance were made it is
equally hard to imagine that the
Vichy government would do more
than protest for the record.
The repercussions of a Franco
German alignment, complete or
partial, could therefore be quickly
and easily handled in the New World
1t is in Africa and the Mediterranean
that the consequences would be grave
and difficult to overcome. German
footholds along the Atlantic sea-
board of Africa would. indeed,
imperil America as we'll as Britain,
and might therefore threaten to in
volve us in the larger struggle over
seas as nothing else hitherto has
done.