The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-11-19
PRESS FRANCE
 TO FIGHT
 AGAINST J. s.
Nazis Work on Laval to Fall in With Their
 Plans
By ROBERT DowsoN United Press stan Correspondent)

United Press Stan Correspondent)
 London, Nov. i0--(UP) The Ger mans today were believed pressing on Pierre Laval, whom they had just set up as O puppet French dic- tator, to force continental France Into war against Britain and the United States.
 The German radio called Laval "the man of the hour" Aged Mar shal Henry Philippe Petain, titular head of the vichy regime, got scarcely Q sop from the German propaganda ministry for making Laval his political heir, empower ing him to decree laws on his own responsibility, and, in effect, sign ing his own abdication papers.
 The political consequences of Lavals elevation were of little iIn- portance, the Germans said, What really mattered were the military consequences.
 Germany has stretched out its much mallled hand, which, however, was not taken by the dissisents in North Africa" radio Berlin broad cast.
 France, furthermore, is of im- portance in Europe's present defen- sive battle not only in view of it's position in the Mediterranean, but also for warfare against the United States and especially for the bat tie against the British Isles."
 Petain Stripped of Power
 The German propaganda was par ticularly significant in view of the fact that Adolf Hitler, in occupy- ing the so-called free zone" of France. specifically abrogated the part of his armistice agreement of 1940 to permit the Vichy govern- ment to conscript Frenchmen for military service. The move was seen at the time as scheme for forcing Frenchmen to fight for the Axis.
 Laval immediately announced that he was establishing his own secret service and propaganda agency. He shook up his cabinet to make it solid ly pro-Nazi and rid it of the last vestiges of loyalty to Adm. Jean Francois Darlan, whom Laval, Pe- tain and the Germans were con- vinced had gone over to the Allies in North Africa for good,
 Laval dismissed Vice Adm. Paul Auphan, secretary of the navy, and replaced him with Adm. Jean Abrial. Minister of Communications Robert Gihrat resigned, probably on orders, and was repla ced by Jean Bichel- onne, present minister of produc- tion. The present minister of fi- nance, Pierre Cathela, for years a Laval stooge, became minister of national economy.
 Abrial formerly was governor general of Tunisia, which the Allies are engaged in clearing of German and Italian forces.
 Germans Looted Colony
 The vichy minister of agriculture promulgated @ communique car. 3 that Allied occupati-l cf North Africa owuld deprive metropolitan France of great quantities of dried vegetables, fruits, wines, Salted fish. cocoa and coffee. He warned the French people that they would have to make more sacrifices"
 The truth was, the Germans will have to make the new sacrifices. The German armistice commission, which the Americans captured in North Africa, was systematically footing those French colonies for the benefit of the Nazis, Although the exports from North Africa passed through Vichy's Mediterran- can ports, the people of continental France saw little of them. The Germans sorted out what they wanted and sent it on to the Reich.
 There also was the matter of ship ping. The British economic war fare ministry announced yesterday that the Allies had picked up 200,- GOO to 300,000 tons of shipping in North Africa.
 Broadcast reports from Vichy tragically showed to what depths Petain, once the foremost idol of France, had been pushed by the Nazis.
 In 1940. Petain suddenly busted Laval as his heir and premier and put him under arrest. replacing him with Darlan. German envoys rushed in to save Laval. He was released from custody and a year later Petain made him chief of government"
 He since has expressed his hope that Germany would win the war but his efforts to recruit labor for German factories dismally failed.