Evening star., 1947-05-23

shall hold you as prisoner" With this, oi-
rected that q platoon Of Americans be thrown
around Admiral Fenards house to see that
Darlan did not leave and that there was no
communication.
was later immensely relieved to learn from
our field commanders that the Darlan ORDER
had been already widely obeyed and was con-
tinuing to be observed despite the contradictory
news from vichy This convinced me all the
more that Darlan would have to be our man
in an oIt-and-out trial Of strength with Petain
Darlan had prevailed.
I brought Gems. Giraud, JUN, Koeltz and
Mendigal together to get their reaction on
Darian's rejection by Petain knew Of the
French reverence for the chain OF command
and wanted to make no mistakes.
Germans About Ready to Invade.
Giraud stroking his mustache pensively,
told me he had received information that the
Germans were about to invade unoccupied
France I'VE are at the end of our rope, 1t is
an appalling situation, 1t is time for all
Frenchmen to get together. It's our RESPONSE
bility to get together to save North Africa"
he said.
One comfort did have was that up the line
in Gibraltar, Gen. Eisenhower was absorbing
the political heat from Washington and Lon
don, where a public uproar had broken out
against our doing any business at all with
Darlan or any other Vichyite.
While we were waiting to see how well the
Darlan cease firing" orders would hold against
pressure from Vichy-which by now included
direct messages to French held commanders
contradicting Darlan's orders-I tried again
to talk out with Gen. Giraud his exact position
in our French setup.
He had not modified his claims to command.
49, fn hA
commander in chief OF all French forces IN
North Africa or any place In the French EN-
pire." At least he was no longer asking for
command Of all Allied troops in North Africa,
but it was still too big an order to be digested
by the other French leaders
The Germans were, by now. pouring into
Tunisia against little or no French resistance.
I ran out to Admiral Fenards and ripped into
Darlan again.
Darlan Feeling Pretty Miserable
I was tough with Darlan, who was feeling
pretty miserable in what he thought was loss
of all his honor and position. "You have told
us repeatedly that you want q free France. but
you have given no visible indication or decision
in support of us or the Allied cause. There are
two things which you can do to demonstrate
your fidelity to the Alies-summon the French
fleet to North African port and order the
Governor of Tunisia admiral Esteva, later
tried and convicted by the French for treason)
to resist invasion by the Germans"
Darlan protested that he had no authority
to summon the fleet In view OF his displace-
ment by Petain, he doubted any OF his orders
would be obeyed. insisted that while he was
our prisoner his word would still be obeyed by
the French Army in North Africa and that I
wanted the troops in Tunisia to oppose the
Boche landing. He fatty refused.
This only verifies the statement I made
when came here" said. You show no Wis
ihIe indication or desire to assist the Allied
cause. Good day" And left the house.
wished knew some way to drop Darlan out
of the picture. He was obviously not to be
trusted.
Giraud unfortunately, had not inspired the