The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-01-03


 The story illustrates very im- portant point: That U. S.-British foreign policy has got to pull clos CT together in the future, and that the State Department officials might have thought twice about skipping British policy in the face especially at a time when Win- ston Churchill was sitting in the White House working on plans for closer Ang!o-American coordina- tion.
 The crux of the situation was that the radio stations on these two French islands long have been suspected of giving information to Vichy-and then to Berlin-on British conveys crossing the North Atlantic; also on Britain bound bombers hopping off from New foundland.
 Fresh fishing vessels from St. Pierre -Miquelon cruise all over the Newfoundland banks and are in an excellent position to observe Allied activity in this vital part of the Atlantc. More recently, NaZi submarines have been prowl- ing closer to U. s. shores and 1t was suspected they might be get ing information-or even sup- plies-from the fishing vessels.
 So the British gave the nod to General DeGaulle to move into the islands. In fact they even let his associate, Vice Ad- miral Museleir, take three French corvettes to do the job. There was no great secret about it, for Admiral Muselier stopped in Canada to talk to Canadian Naval Minister Angus MacDon- aid, and also picked up some American newspapermen to wit ness the taking over of the two islands.
 O-CALLED" FREE FRENCH
 However, on the morning Ad- miral Muselier placed the Free French flag on St. Pierre-Mique- lon, Secretary Hull getting the news at his breakfast table, hur- ried to the State Department and OK'd a scathing statement, castigating the "so-called" Free French.
 This upset the British consider ably. because they had been en- couraging the French people to think of the Free French not as a "so-called" government, but as a government more truly free and representative of the French peo- pie than Vichy.
 Also it upset the Jugoslavs, the Dutch, the Greeks and a lot of other "s0-called governments which have been maintaining headquarters in London and have been calling themselves the real governments of their coun- tries-even though in exile.
 However, Secretary Hull seemed to be even more upset than the British. He had made a deal with Vichy's Admiral Robert in Martinique few days before, by which Admiral Robert was to keep an eye on St. Pierre-Mequelon. And he felt this agreement should be kept. So, his Tennessee dan- der up, Mir. Hull cabled U. 8. Ambassador Winant in London to take up the matter with the British.
 Ambassador Winant, in turn, went to Malcolm Macdonald, min- ister of Colonies, who was upset that the United Sttaes and Bri- tain should be working at cross purposes. and telephoned his friend Lord Beaverbrook back in Washington to have Churchill stratghten the matter out with Roosevelt.
 By that time, Sam Reber, in the State Department, had tele- phoned R. E. Barclay of the Bri- tsh embassy wanting to know what the British were up to, and every Anglo-Ainerican coordina- tor seemed to be in every other Anglo - American coordinator's hair.
 What the President said to his Secretary of State Is their secret, but in the end MT. Hull adopted Q milder tone toward the Free French and is working