Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1941-10-24
A Year of Collaboration

A year ago today, Marshal Petain
met Chancellor Adolf Hitler at the
little village of Montoire, just north
Of the city of Tours. At that men,
orable conference the aged marshal,
as political head of defeated France,
accepted the principle of "collabora-
ton" with the conqueror. To the
marshal and to most Frenchmen,
this meant a working agreement
with Germany, chiefly on economic
lines, in return for which France
might hope for a progressive relaxa-
ton of the harsh armistice terms
imposed four months before.
The twelve months which have
elapsed have brought scant realiza-
ton of those hopes. The boun-
diaries of the occupied and unoccu-
pied zones remain substantially I'M
altered, so the larger and more i'm
portant part of France, including
Paris, still is in German hands. The
bulk of the huge army of French
war prisoners continues to suffer in
German detention camps. The
crushing burden of payments to de-
fray the cost of German occupation
forces has been only slightly reduced.
Systematically drained and ex-
plotted in every way, France faces
the prospect of bankruptcy and
starvation.
Nothing could illustrate more
poignantly the condition of France
on this tragic anniversary than the
broadcast delivered by Marshal
Petain the day before. Appealing
to his people to stop the asSassina-
ton of German officers in the occu-
pied zone, which was being avenged
by the conquerors at the rate of 100
lives for each dead German, the
aged leader cried in broken tones:
The stream of blood is again flow
ing over France!"
The Vichy government certainly
has lived up to its promises of eco
nomic collaboration with the Third
Reich. Even in the unoccupied zone,
French industry is largely geared to
German requirements, while both
France itself and its African colonies
have been substantial sources of raw
materials for Germany's benefit.
Why, then, has France received so
little in return? 1t Is because Hitler's
idea of collaboration" was unlimited
compliance with his every demand,
including French re-entry into the
war on the German side. A year ago.
Hitler thought he could get his way
through the fundamentally of Pierre
Laval. But this plant tool was I'M
able to deliver the goods. Marshal
Petain refused to go beyond his con-
ception of the Montoire agreement,
and Laval was stripped of his off,
cial powers. The Germans retaliated
by making almost no concessions
and holding France to the terms of
the armiStice.
After this first crisis. late last
autumn, months of dickering en-
sued, with Admiral Darlan as the
chief official advocate of wider COL
liberation, though not to the same
extent as that which Laval had
proposed. Darlan did get minor
concessions from the Germans, but
the situation fundamentally has
never altered. Meanwhile, French
economy has deteriorated steadily
and the coming winter promises to
be terrible one. The tide of pop
ular anger and rebellion rises
throughout France, as it does else
where in German-occupied Europe.
Passive resistance is giving place to
wholesale sabotage and acts of ter
rorlSm for which the Germans are
exacting fearful penalties.
The situation is dark, and the out
look is still darker. Open and large
scale revolts by an unarmed people
cannot yet be expected and probably
would be fruitless. But the policy
of collaboration" certainly has paid
minute dividends. The martyrdom
of France goes on relentlessly.