The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1942-01-15
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Washington, ID. G.
AN INSIDE STORY

1lGIc ID Tie l1SlOG StOly Oll WLds
happened in all the fuss and furore
over the Free French seizure of the
two tiny North Atlantic islands of
st. Pierre-Miquelon.
The story illustrates very i'm
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 off 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 proving 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
islands. In fact they even let his as
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.
'SO-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 a 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 a 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. 80
However, Secretary Hull seemed
to be even more upset than the Brit
ish. He had made a deal with
Vichy's Admiral Robert in Marti-
nique 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
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 a
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 meaP' manufactured from dead
cattle-until they learned it was ex-
cellent for extinguishing incendiary
bombs.
Most staggering lend-lease request
was for one railroad-complete with
locomotives and freight cars. The
order has been filed, and shipped
off to Iran.
Before buying cloth for army rain
coats, the quartermaster depot in
Philadelphia tests it with a machine
that creates an artificial rain storm.
For military reasons details can't
be revealed, but the U. S. is pro-
ducing an anti-aircraft gun that is
more powerful and deadly than any
now in use in the army. The new