The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-11-16

ing, the official position of the Uni. ted States today is that this gov ernment will continue to deal with the local French ofiiclals, ignoring anything that the Laval govern, ment in France may have to say, U, s, policy is first to safeguard American interests near these pos. sessions; second, to protect them for the French people and to sec that they are not turned over to any puppet governments or indt- viduals seeking to exploit them for private gain,
 Most valuable of the possessions is Martinique. In the harbor of its capital, Fort de France, are Q French naval aircraft carrier, 100 American-made planes, two cruisers and 100000 tons of merchant ships. Back in the hills is buried a stock of French gold bullion, rushed there by the old French republican government just before the fall of Paris.
 The planes, hot sutff in le4o, are now probably obsolete. The battle- ships have been inmobilised and their ammunition removed. The deteriorating. Their escape is i'm possible, but there has been con. siderable pressure on the United States to move in on the island and seize it. The Free French in particular would like to see the gold stocks turned over to them.
 
 AN AGREEMENT
 The United States, however, has been content to make sure that the island was not used by the Vichy French or indirectly by the Ger mans. One agreement, negotiated last Deember. permits the Carib- bean French possessions to continue their trade to keep the inhabitants from starvation, in return for pledges that the planes and ships would not be used against the Uni ted States.
 A second agreement made in May provided for full disarmament of the warships, immobilization of the freighterS and return of the col onies to the French after the war
 In spite of a constant watch, there have been charges that the islands were being used by the Nazis. One U. S. destroyer, the Blakely, was twice torpedoed near Martinique, though it escaped sink ing. That was last May 25 and 20. On May 30 a U. s. naval patrol plane was credited with sinking a submarine of Martinique. Most sensational event in the is lands war record followed the sink i ing of a tanker of Martinique on Feb. 20. Next day Nazi sub rose in the harbor at Fort de France to send ashore an officer who had developed a gangrenous leg. The sub was in the harbor only half an hour, but out of that incident grew charges that the U-boat had taken on fresh water supplies.
 A BAUXTTE SOURCE
 Of real importance strategically is French Guiana, just east oi Dutch Guiana, source of much of the bauxite which comes to the United States for reduction into aluminium. There are both U. S. Army and Navy installations at Surinam, capital of Dutch Guiana, to safeguard this southern terminal of the vital bauxite supply line.
 St. Pierre and Miquelon, com manding the St. Lawrence Bay and the mouth of the river, leaped into Lhe headlines the day before last Christmas when a Free French force liberated the two little islands from Vichy rule, ordering a plebis- cite for Christmas day. The vote was $50 in favor of the Free French to 10 in favor of collaboration with Vichy. There was big howl from Vichy, and the U. S. government had to admit that the occupation had been made without it's knowl- edge or consent.
 But the de Gaulle people are still running the islands.