Evening star., 1941-04-21
DarIan 10 Receive
Germans Bid for
vichy Collaboration
Petuin's Vice Premier
Reported Due to See
Abetz Shortly in ?oris
BY PAUL GHALI,

By PAUL GHALI,
Chicago Daily News Foreign Correspondent.
VICHY, April 21.-A last chance" T"
point offer, repeatedly brought
to Paris from Adolf Hitler by his
personal delegate, DR.. Otto Abetz,
is to be handed to Vichy's vice
premier, Admiral Jean Darlan, In a
final effort to win Vichy into active
participation in Germanys conti-
mental struggle.
This correspondent received that
information today, together with a
report that Admiral Darlan is due
to go to Paris shortly to confer with
DR.. Abetz, just returned from con-
situations with Der Fuehrer
Various straws in the wind indi-
cate, observers said, that Vichy's
complete adhesion to the German
cause is inevitable.
Hitler's Program.
Hitler's program, declared to be
similar to that proposed by Vice
Premier Pierre Laval before he was
deposed last December 13, is as fol-
lows:
l. Expenses paid by France for
German occupation are to be re-
duced to less than half (now 400
OO0, 900 francs day..
2. Two departments, those of Pas
de Calais and the Nord, now un-
der the Jurisdiction of the Brussels
Gauleiter, are to be restored to
French administration from Paris.
3. A total of 100000 prisoners
Germany has almost 1000 0O00)-
farmers and specialized factory
workers-are to be freed.
4. Rectif1cation is to be made of
problems connected with the de-
marcation line between occupied
and unoccupied zones, presumably
communications and other mediums
Of intercourse.
5. Germany will not insist Git is
affirmed here) on assumption of
French naval bases or units of the
French feet. 1t will understand"
French reluctance to collaborate in
the manufacture of war material.
Furthermore, France is to retain
the administration of its colonies
I Except those formerly German).
Three Factors for Reconciliation.
Three factors have arisen in the
Franco-German situation which,
observers point out, make recon-
ciliation a necessity of the day, and,
therefore, a real probability.
l. Hitler has all but conquered
/ tho no1Laoc ic iTa
| to close the other end of his
formidable pincers over Gibraltar
and in this next expectable Nazi
step in the Mediterranean campaign
Vichy-France stands out as the
principal pawn.
2. Britain's defeat, or near-defeat,
in the Balkans has increased the
numbers of "collaborationists" in
France.
8. Paris press appeals are louder
and louder that European destinies
are being decided in the Balkans.
and with them the destiny of
France" Implied is the Imperative
ness of a quick choice and one in
line with Germany's goal for a new
order.
France must now be with Britain
or with Europe; with (Gen. Charles)
de Gaulle Chead Of the Free French
movemenO or against him" writes
Marcel Deaf, editor of the Paris
L'Oeuvre.
Jean Luchaire sounds the same
note in his Nouveaux Temps. He
writes:
IF vichy continues Gn its non-
co-operation) unoccupied France
will constitute the last stronghold
of British influence on the conti-
| nent"
Even newspapers in unoccupied
France now seem convinced that
the theme of Paris is right. Paul
RiveS, in his Socialist LEffort,
under the suggestive title "One Must
Yield to the Evidence" today makes
a vehement appeal for continuation
Of the "Montoire" policy. At Mon
toire last October "a Chief of State
Marshal Henri Petain and Fuehrer
Adolf Hitler achieved a tentative
plan of collaboration.
Emissaries from the Paris pop