The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1942-01-16
rDiijdalaq1t|a,
ASA Washington, d. O.
AN INSIDE STORY

| happened In all the russ ana IurOFe
over the Free French seizure OF the
two tiny North Atlantic islands OF
st. Pierre-Miquelon.
The story illustrates a very Inn
portant point: That U. S.-British for
eign policy has got to pull closer to-
| gether in the future, and that state
department officials might have
thought twice about slapping Brit
ish policy in the face-especially at
time when Winston Churchill was
sitting in the White House working
on plans for closer Anglo-American
| coordination.
The crux of the situation was that
the radio stations on these two
| French islands long have been sus-
pected of giving information to
Vichy-and then to Berlin-on Brit
ish conveys crossing the North At
lantic; also on Britain-bound bomb
ers hopping of from Newfoundland.
French 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 At
lantic. More recently, Nazi subma-
rines have been prowling closer to
U. S. shores and it was suspected
they might be getting Information
or even supplies-from the fishing
vessels.
So the British gave the nod to
General DeGaulle to move into the
:~l~-<l, fo0< %Iax, AVIAN Ia< HE &C.
sociate, Vice Admiral Muselier, take
three French corvettes. to do the
Job. There was no great secret
about it, for Admiral Muselier
| stopped in Canada to talk to Ca
madam Naval Minister Angus Mac
| Donald, and also picked UP some
| American newspaper men to wit
ness the taking over of the two is
lands.
| sSO-CALLED' FREE FRENCH
However, on the morning Admiral
Muselier placed the Free French
| flag on St. Pierre-Miquelon, Secre-
tary Hull, getting the news at his
| breakfast table, hurried to the state
| department and OK'd scathing
statement, castigating the $50
called" Free French.
This upset the British considera-
bly,, because they had been encour-
aging the French people to think OF
| the Free French not as "so-called'
| government, but as government
more truly free and representative
of the French people than Vichy. !.
Also it upset the Jugoslavs, the
Dutch, the Greeks and lot Of 9th
er "so-called" governments which
have been maintaining headquarters
in London and have been calling
themselves the real governments of
their countries-even though in
exile.
However, Secretary Hull seemed
to be even more upset than the Brit
ish. He had made deal with
Vichy's Admiral Robert in Marti-
nique a few days before, by which
Admiral Robert was to keep an eye
on St. Pierre-Miquelon. And he felt
this agreement should be kept. So,
his Tennessee dander up, Mr.. Hull
cabled u. S. Ambassador Winant in
| London to take up the matter with
the British government.
Ambassador Winant, in turn, went
| to Malcolm Macdonald, minister of
| colonies, who was upset that the
J United States and Britain should
be working at cross-purposes, and
telephoned his friend Lord Beaver
brook back in Washington to have
Churchill straighten the matter out
with Roosevelt.
BY that time, Sam Reber, in the
state department, had telephoned r.
E. Barclay of the British embassy
wanting to know what the British
were up to, and every Anglo-Ameri-
can co-ordinator seemed to be in
every other Anglo-American co-ordi-
nator's hair.
What the President said to his
secretary of state is their secret,
but in the end Mr.. Hull adopted
milder tone toward the Free French
and is working out compromise
agreement with the Canadians.
The crux of the controversy, of
course, is that Mr.. Hull still be-
lieves in appeasing Vichy, and the
British gave that up long ago.
The British say that General De-
Gaulle did most of the fighting for
the Allied cause in Syria, while
Vichy, in resisting, killed many Brit
ish troops. So they are going to
stick with DeGaulle.
But whichever side is right-the
British or Secretary Hull-it might
pay to work out some teamwork in
advance.
MERRY-GO-ROUND
Lend-lease officials were puzzled
by a British request for "horn and
hoof meal' manufactured from dead