July 1
The agreement between the British and French admirals at Alexandria under which the French fleet in that port will be immobilized will, it is hoped, put an end to the miserable business which commenced Oran. 'The agreement: provides that the war vessels shall be put into such a condi that they' cannot put to sea, that they shall be demilitarized, and that the crows left board shall only be sufficient for maintenance work. So with the exception of those ships which have taken refuge at Martinique, and which are being watched by the British, there others which were taken to British ports immediately after the signing of the Armistice, and those four vessels which took 10 raiding British commerce from Casablanca the French Navy has been accounted for, and. only a very small portion of it remains in enemy hands. 'Thus the German scheme secure possession of the French Navy and so change the balance of sea power has been completely foiled, and the mastery of the' seas, so necessary before any serious attempt to invade Britain can hope to succeed, has com pletely been foiled. Herr Hitler has'been dis-Appointed of his hopes in that the most important fruits of victory, namely. the French Navy, have been wrested from him, and naval position is now no better and no worse than it was before Marshal Petain signed the Armistice. Admiral Godefroy. the French aval commander, not only did the wisest but the most honourable thing in accepting the British terms, wisest because there was little or no hope that he would ever be able escape to a French port, most honourable because he refused to be a party to the great fact of betrayal to be found in the Armistice li self. The commander of the Richelieu at}
Dakar did not take the same view of the situation, and it is to be regretted that in executing the determination to make sure that the vessel would never be used against them, the British hud again to take action which resulted in the further loss of French lives.
When the Armistice was signed France had eight capital ships fit to form a battle line. Three of the Bretagne and the Courbet class have passed under British control, one sunk und one badly damaged and immobilized, while the balance are probably accounted for (Of two modern battle-cruisers lore and put out of ction, while the other managed to escape to Toulon, not without receiving such damage fas may force her to idleness for some time to come. There are apparently some other cruisers which will need to be watched, but tactical reasons," Mr.
Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty, refused to give information as to their wherewbouts. The general position of the enemy then is that the British Navy is still superior to the combined remnants of the German ficer, and the Hatian Navy which has stilt to show its worth. Britain consequently holds complete mastery in the Atlantic and the North Sea, and there can be but little doubt that, witan the talion navy is encountered, the British control of the Mediterranean will the established once and for all. That there are in the Mahan navy vessels of great strength and speed is admitted, but encounters between British and German war vessels ave shown that it is not only the excellence of the war machine which matters but the quality of the men operating them, 33 wit ness the Adiiral Graf Spee, where a more heavily armed cruiser was encountered bs lighter British vessels, forced to flee eventually to scuttle, and the various en ments in the North Sea, Thus Great Brita in the tenth month of the war stands with her Navy practically' intact, despite the fle vicious German claims of huge losses inflicted upon it, and indeed strengthened by the ad~ dition of the five battleships which were laid down in 1937 and 1938, and which during April last were undergoing their final trials, and have since been commissioned. There are also. numbers of other craft which have bee completed since the war began of which the Admiralty for obvious reasons have at.no time made mention. have indeed been i serious marl French fleet had been allowed to fall into German hands. It would have meant] that the damage inflicted upon th> fet, which has reduced it to a mere shadow of fis former self, would have been made whole, that the German Navy' would indeed have been very considerably strengthened, and that a great deal of the work which the Navy had done would have had to be done all over again, There is a great deal to be' said for the plea of General de Gaulle, head, fof the French National Committee in Britain, that the action taken by the British Navy: should not be interpreted as a naval success. It was not. It was an action ruthlessly taken Because of the danger which the armistice was likely to prove to the British if it had been carried out in the entirety of its terms. The General agrees that there could not the slightest doubt that on principle, and out of necessity the Germans would have used those vessels against Great Britain and the French Empire, and the British navy taking full advantage of the conditions at Oran,—and they would have been extremely foolish to have done otherwise—acted in a manner that perforce Herr Hitler would have to keep his word. There remain a few units still to be cleaned up. It is to be hoped that when they are encountered they will follow the! example of the French admiral at Alexandria and yield peacefully. There is no honour to be gained by fighting it out, but only the certain. Knowledge that men who have the same ight to live as other people will be sacrificed fo no purpose whatever. It is to be hoped that this most unhappy affair will speedily be terminated and the whole thing bar from the minds of men. History will doubt-Jess have a verdict to express upon the whole matter, and to that it can be left. All that remains is for the British and her Allies, and perhaps those French, who still adhere to the principles for which' their country up to a short time ago was fighting, to continue the struggle, in the knowledge that victory will ensure the rectification of many wrongs and the restoration to afflicted countries of their original integrity and independence,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.