The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-07-25
REYNAUD REVEALS
SECRET TREATIES
Continued From Page One)

Reynaud began telling about
letter he had written Mussolini
suggesting they confer over tissues
dividing our countries.'' He said
he intended to make the letter
public if Italy attacked France. 1t
was unseless when the attack did
come" he said.
When Reynaud finished, Isorny
read a deposition written by
Charles Roux. a French diplomat
in the Ministry of Foreign Affair
at the time. Rowx asserted that a
cable addressed to Rome envisages
offering Italy condominium over
Tunisia and ceding Fr n h
equatorial Africa. 1t was brought
out in testimony who sent the tele-
gram.
Reynaud's words came out like
the crack of whip:
Il never dreamed of offering
Musso1ini Tunisia or any part of
French equatorial Africa
He said the idea was originally
conceived by the French Ambas
sador to Rome, who sent a special
emissary to Paris with it. Reynaud
said ne put no faith in keeping
Italy neutral that way.
Reynaud said he went to London
and. vehemently denying the as
| hot
the British government was kept
in ignorance. said he discussed it
with Churchill and other British
ministers.
81 know that the battle of France
was going to be extremely danger
GUS. Gen. Maxime) Weygand
said we could swim but it would be
very close. Italian aggression, if
it came at just that moment might
be the drop of water that shatter-
ed the vase" Reynaud said.
Moreover, l recalled what Sum-
ner Welles told me when he had
visited me shortly before. He said
he had been deeply impressed by
Mussolini's complaint that Italy
was bottled up in an ocean closed
at both ends.
Il asked them (the British) if
it was poss BILE to devise some kind
of formula giving satisfaction to the
Italians, on the condition Italy re-
NAMED neutral, and after the war
was won by the Allies" he said.
British officials tabled the sug-
gestion, Reynaud went on. He re-
turned to Paris the next day and
nothing more was done about it.
He denied that he ever wrote the
telegram mentioned in Roux' depo-
sition.
At this point, juror interposed:
Are we conducting here, the trial
of Reynaud or the trial of Petain?"
Presiding Judge Paul Mongi-
beeaux said: Il was just going to
ask that myself" The juror added:
if we are going on like this, it S
going to last two montns.''
Reynaud, in his bitter narrative,
asserted that Petain had opposed
the fertilization of the Northern
frontiers of France long before the
war. Petain, he said, also opposed
a two-year period of military serv-
ice.
Dapper and bird-like, the former
premier charged that Petain had
influenced Adm. Jean Darlan and
former Premier Camille Chau.
temps, member OF. the Reynaud
cabinet, into signing the armistice
with Germany. For himself, Rey,
maud said that on the day his cabi,
net fell, June is, 1910, he did not
oppose the order to cease fire but
was firmly against demands for an
armistice. He said he argued
lengthily with other cabinet mem
bers.
Il was left with no choice but
to resign,' he said. Il was in the
minority"
That night, he went on, I ex-
pla ned the situation of the cabinet
to president AlberD Lebrun who
asked me to enforce the policy of
the majority. I replied q will new
er apply it., for if the majority
opinion of the cabinet prevailed
France was lost"
All through the armistice discus
sions, Reynaud said, he argued with
Petan and Adm. Darlan over the
future of the French fleet. He testi-
fled that Darlan-s since assassina-
ted in Algiers where he was col
laborating with the Allied invasion
|, sent orders to the fleet command
to sink the ships rather than let
them fall into German hands.
Il Immediately informed Churc-
hill of this, but he had no faith in