In all that has to be written about the armistice terms which have been dictated by Germany and accepted by the Bordeaux government one proviso has always to be borne in mind. The armistice, amounting to unconditional surrender, shameful as it unhappily is, was negotiated by the Petain Government, which cannot claim to be representative of the French people. The real feelings of the French people have been indicated in the telegrams, which have poured into Bor-deux from all parts of the world where there are French people, which have demanded that France should fight on. Those representations were of no avail, and upon Marshal Petain and his colleagues rest the grave responsibility for the betrayal of their people in a manner which a few days ago would have been thought impossible. Where the French must feel dismay is to be found in the question: If these are indeed the terms of armistice, what have we to expect if peace is negotiated? It is not so very long ago that Great Britain and France entered into an agreement not to negotiate peace with the enemy without the consent of each other. It is but a few days ago that the French Foreign Minister, M. Paul Baudoin, declared that France would not accept humiliating, or shameful terms. That undertaking and declaration have been falsified in the event. In signing this armistice the Petain Government has accepted terms which exact the complete capitulation of France, involving the handing over of all material to be used in Germany's war on her erstwhile Ally, as well as placing the greater part of France at the enemy's disposal for the purpose of prosecuting the war against Great Britain. The Petain Government will continue to exist in a relatively small area of France, but it will exist entirely upon sufferance and be completely dependent upon Berlin. This will be all the more the case, if, as it is reported, the Italian armistice terms will involve the Italian control of the whole of the French Mediterranean coast. No armistice has ever been bought at so high a price, and the Petain Government, in agreeing to pay it, has woefully betrayed a great and glorious people in a manner best calculated to be of assistance to the enemy in its proposed campaign against Great Britain. Thus not only have the French people been grossly betrayed, but their Ally as well.
It was inevitable that Mr. Churchill should, in the circumstances, decide to break off all relations with the Bordeaux Government.
Obviously under the terms of the Armistice it is nothing but a satrapy of Berlin, and to have continued recognition of it would have been farcical. It remains to be seen when ther the French colonial empire will accept the situation quite so calmly as has Marshal Petain and his colleagues. Possessed of vast resources, dominated by men of larger view than the Bordeaux Government appears to be, they may decide to carry on under some form of government which Great Britain can accept, and still continue to assist as far as is possible in bringing about that victory without which the French empire cannot hope to exist. They realize that this Armistice is designed to prevent those masses of Frenchmen in their native country and the colonies overseas continuing their struggle against the common enemy, and it is doubtful whether they will accept a situation which is as obnoxious to them as it is to their Ally. The action which the Bordeaux Government has taken against General de Gaulle will probably not deter him from forming a national French committee in London to carry on the Government of the French Colonial Empire. Such a movement will have the completest support of the British Government which will give it such financial and other aid as may be necessary to bring such a scheme to success. If that is done, then the world will see' France doing what Mr. Churchill in one of his recent speeches contemplated, an empire, the heart of which has been captured by the enemy continuing the fight for freedom from colonial! bases. General de Gaulle made his intentions quite clear in his broadcast on Sunday. He is setting up an organization through which the desires of the French people will be made known, and it is for them to signify their allegiance to the new temporary committee, which it should be quite possible to make thoroughly representative of the French people throughout ihe world.
The terms of the armistice by which France gives to the enemy all its arms, aeroplanes, ships and gold cannot but arouse the greatest curiosity as to what would be the peace terms of the Axis if they ever reached a position from which they would be able to dictate them. Obviously, there is now left so little to demand that peace at German, and Italian dictation would amount to nothing but the complete dismemberment of the French empire. That is the brutal fact which the French and the British have to face.
This, so far as the Axis is concerned, is a purely predatory war. It is not to right the alleged injustice about which Germany and Italy have said so much to justify plunge ing Europe into war, but to grab Allied territory in a scheme of aggrandisement calculated to give the aggressors complete and lasting dominance of Europe, and ultimately of the rest of" the world. It has to be admitted that the defection of the Petain Government, and the acceptance of terms which have no semblance of honour about them, has been a serious blow to the Allied cause. But the damage which has been done is by no means irreparable, Great Britain with the French colonies, or for that matter without them, can, and will carry on this struggle for just so long as it is necessary to ensure victory, and the consequent freedom of Europe from the evil thing which menaces it. In doing so it will have the immense resources of the combined Empires, and the huge moral and material support of the United States. That the fight will be Jong, and hard is to be expected, but the defection of Marshal Petain and his followers will not deter the British, nor those others faithful to the cause of Democracy, from carrying on until the present gloom ends in the glorious sun of victory. A that is achieved, it will not be the disloyalty of the Bordeaux Government to the common cause which will influence Great Britain visa-vis of her Ally, but the knowledge that whatever betrayal there has been, and it is indeed a grave one, has not been with the consent and approval of the masses of French people, but the act of a few individuals who France was unfortunate enough to find in office at the most tragic period of her history. The British will remain loyal to their Ally as ever they were, for they recognize where the fault lies, and will not condemn the many for the gross, error of the few.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.