The operation was carried out without resistance and bloodshed except in the case of the Surcout, Where one British seaman and one French ameer were killed and a few were wounded, For the rest, the French sailors, in the main, cheerfully accepted the position and several hundred pressed ardent desire to continue the war, Mr, Churchill continued, Several French submarines joined the British Fleet independently in the, Mediterranean, he said. French war-' ships at Alexandria have been in= formed they cannot leave harbour.
The Mahan Fleet kept prudently; out of the way, A large proportion of the French Fleet has been brought under British control or put out of action or with. held from Germany, the Prime Minister stated, Everything possible would be done to prevent the rest of the French! Fleet still at large from falling into the hands of the Germans, Churchill Loudly Cheered When Mr, Churchill sat down the whole House rose and cheered him for several minutes, waving order papers, There were further cheers; When he rose to move that the House go into secret session, "at _is with sincere' sorrow." Me, Churchill began his speech, "that must now announce to the House measures which we have felt bound to take in order to prevent the French Fleet from falling into German hands, "When two nations are fighting together under a solemn alliance Against a common foe one may be stricken down and overwhelmed and may be forced to ask its ally to re~ lease it from its obligations.
"The least that could be expected was that the French Government, in abandoning the conflict and in lea ing the whole weight to fall upon Great Britain and the British Empire, would have been careful not to infiet fheediess injury. on the faithful ally in whose final victory the sole chance of French freedom lay and' lies.
The Vital Pro "As the House will remember, we offered to release the French from their treaty obligations on one condition, namely, that the French Fleet should be sailed to British harbours before separate armistice negotiations were completed, This has not been done. On the contrary, in spite of every Kkind of private and, personal promise and assurance given by Admi~ tal Darlan to the First Lord and his aval colleagues, an armistice was Signed which was bound to place the French Fleet as effectively in the power of Germany and its Italian follower—(cheers)—as that portion of the French Fleet was placed in our power when many of, them, unable to reach African ports came into the harbours of Portsmouth and Plymouth about 10 days ago.
jut T must place on record that what might have been a mortal me jury to us was done by the Bordeaux Government with full knowledge of the consequences and of our danger. and after rejecting all our appeals at moment when they were abandoning the alliance and breaking engagements which fortified it, Example of Callous Treatment "There was another example of thi callous and perhaps even malevolent treatment—<(cheers)—which we received-not indeed from the French nation—(eheers)—, who never have. been and apparently never are to be consulted on these transactions—but from the Bordeaux Gov. ernment.
"This is the instance: There were over 400 German air pilots who were prisoners in France, many of them, perhaps most of them. shot down by the RAF. I obtained from Reynaud personal promise that these pilots would be sent for safekeeping to England. Orders were given by him to that effect but when Reynaud fell those pilots were delivered over to Germany~-in order, no doubt, to win favour for the Bordeaux Government with their German masters and to win it without regard to the Injury done to us.
"The German Air Force already feels acutely the shortage of highrade pilots and It seems particularly Odious—(cheers)—that these 400 skilled men should have been handed over with the sure knowledge that they would be used to bomb this country and thus cause our men 10 shoot them down a second time.
"Such Wrongful "Such wrongful deeds will not, 1 fam sure, be condoned by history, 1 firmly believe that a generation of Frenchmen will arise who will clear {their national honour from all countenance of them. said last week we must now ook with particular attention to our own salvation. I never in my oxperience have seen so grim and som: bre a question as what we were to do about the French Fleet discussed the Cabinet. Tt shows how strong were the reasons for the course w3 thought it our duty to take that every member of the Cabinet had the sama conviction about what should be done. 'There was not. the slightest hesita Hon or divergence among them, and 13 service Ministers as well as' men Uke the Minister of Information, the Secretary for Colonies—particularly oled for their long friendship with France—when they were consulted were equally convinced that no other decision than that which we took was possible,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.