Evening star., 1942-12-30
Revealing Free France

keWelding Free france
General Charles de Gaulle's pro-
nouncement to his compatriots
everywhere, praising General Giraud
and calling for united action against
the Axis, is hopeful portent that
the deep riffs which have divided
Frenchmen for the past two and
one-half years may be bridged over
at least Professionally in a common
effort against the common enemy.
Yet facile optimism should not blind
outside observers to the difficulties
inherent in the undertaking.
In the first place, it should be re-
membered that, long before the
technical unity of France and it's
colonial empire was shattered by the
armistice with the Axis in June, 1910,
the spiritual unity of France had
been undermined by bitter political
and theological feuds which reduced
the country to state of latent civil
war and played major part in the
tragic collapse and disintegration
that followed the German invasion.
Indeed, it is probable that II France
had not been spiritually disunited
the disintegrating collapse would
not have occurred.
The first open schism was that
between General de Gaulle and the
new regime established at Vichy
under Marshal Petain. De Gaulle
and his followers took the position
that the Armistice was illegal and
the Vichy regime mere usurpation.
For them, the Third Republic re-
manned constitutionally intact, and
all else was null and void Hence,
they claimed to represent the true
France, even though their status
was not achieved by constitutional
methods.
However, the Free Qater Fight
ing") French movement did not gain
much momentum. 1t won out only
In minor sections of the colonies,
such as Equitorial Africa and the
South Pacific. Most Of the empire
followed the homeland in yielding
allegiance to Marshal Petain and his
Vichy regime. At the start, this re-
gime was quite solidly based. But,
as time went on, it was morally
undermined by the combined pres
sure of the Allies and of the Axis
Petain's hope of standing aloof from
the war faded as the Axis demanded
greater collaboration which, in
turn, led Britain and America to
take increasingly extreme measures
to protect themselves against Vichy
neutrality" that was becoming more
and more unneutral.
Those combined pressures caused
further disintegration within the
Vichy regime itself. At home, public
opinion was progressively alienated,
while the colonies began to split off
in autonomous fragments like the
French West Indies under Admiral
Robert and the interned fleet at
Alexandria, Egypt, with allegiance
neither to Vichy nor to De Gaulle
The schism of French North Africa
under Admiral Darlan, precipitated
by the landing of an Allied army of
occupation, was thus further stage
In a process already we'll under way.
However, all these later schisms
derive from Vichy and are led by
men who originally accepted Marshal
Petain and his regime. They all were
hostile to De Gaulle and they re-
ject his claim of being the true rep
resentative of Third Republic that
still theoretically exists 1t is most
unlikely that these schismatics will
| subordinate themselves to De Gaulle
and his Fighting French movement.
But the Fighting French, on their
side, are equally disinclined to
abandon their principles and sub
ordinate themselves to men whom
they regard as time-servers or even
as traitors. The problem thus is
deep-going from both the political
and theological aspects.
The most hopeful factor is General
Giraud, now head of the provisional
regime in French Africa, who has
the respect of all factions and has
been identified politically with none.
But Giraud is the one personality
who thus stands "above the battle"
The others are all compromised in
one way or another. How they can
be welded into an effective unity re-
mains to be seen.