FRANCE ASKS FOR TERMS. The Reynaud government has fallen and Vice Premier Petain is now in charge of what's left of France. This morning's radio reports say that the new government, now located in Bordeaux, has asked Hitler for terms. The Petain regime is seeking “an honorable peace,” but the Germans have not yet replied. William L. Shirer, reporting from occupied Paris last night for the C.B.S., says that Parisians were “almost struck dead” by the news, which came in the form of a broadcast by Marshal Petain -- for which the Germans helpfully provided loud speaker trucks placed around the capital. A report this morning quotes the new Interior Minister, Paul Baudoin, as saying, “We are ready to lay down arms if we can get honorable peace.”
It's not clear what Petain's ministers mean by “honorable peace.” One big question mark in any armistice is the fate of the French fleet. The Nazis would love to get their hands on these ships, and the British would love to help France's navy escape from German clutches and continue the war at Britain's side. If it's true, as Monday's New York Times says, that “elements of the new regime incline toward a policy of appeasement,” the fleet might well be turned over in return for, say, some measure of continued French autonomy (though the Nazis have shown many times over they're willing to cheat on or discard their promises when it suits them).
Then again, we should remember what happened in Norway, where King Haakon's government was poised to capitulate to the Germans very early in the fight -- until Hitler caustically threw terms at them too harsh for any sane leader to accept. If the Germans haven't yet learned their lesson in this regard, the French government still could, ultimately, move to North Africa and continue the fight.
THE FRONT FALLS APART. It doesn't appear that, whatever the French government decides, they'll be able to keep up the fight much longer within France. Over the week-end newsmen predicted the French would soon make a stand on the Loire River in central France. But by Monday the Germans already crossed the Loire and were fighting for Orleans, which is the northernmost city on the Loire and seventy-five miles south of Paris. Monday's French war communique says the French are putting up “desperate resistance” along the middle part of the Loire, but apparently there is no longer a single organized line of defense. The radio also says this morning that Nazi armor has stabbed deeper into the heart of France, reaching two cities east of the Loire, Dijon and Autum, which are 150 to 175 miles southeast of Paris.
Meanwhile, the Maginot Line is no more. Sigrid Schultz writes in Monday's Chicago Tribune that the Germans have come within sixty miles of encircling the massive defense barrier and cutting off its 500,000 French defenders. But a later Associated Press report in some of Monday's editions says the French have secretly managed to withdraw most of their men from the Line, “to make an open stand with the army of General Maxime Weygand on a line west from the French Jura mountains.” The A.P. also says that “German legions penetrating the line found it almost empty.”
BRITAIN PREPARES FOR A FINISH FIGHT. According to James M. Minifie in Monday’s New York Herald Tribune, the British Foreign Office has responded to the fall of the Reynaud government with “a grim statement of Great Britain’s resolution to fight on until victory was won, even if it should take years.” The British may have one sound reason to hope for eventual victory, if they can only survive intact through the next few critical months. As Mr. Minifie writes, “The scale with which Germany is burning up her resources, it was pointed out, means that the Reich must win in a few months or never, whereas British strength in trained men, mechanized equipment and airplanes is growing ‘with increasing momentum.’” More men have been called to service during the last five weeks than at any time during the Empire’s history.
But while Britain’s government still hopes that the French fleet will carry on the fight, or that the new Petain regime will continue the struggle from North Africa, it’s recognized that for the foreseeable future Britain will either shoulder most of the Allies’ war burden -- or will fight on completely alone. Britons have been warned that “the war may be directed almost exclusively against these islands and that they must be prepared to face the prospect of invasion.”
CHURCHILL’S “SECRET MESSAGE.” The last week-end of the Reynaud government was apparently marked by furious debate over what the Associated Press called a “secret” message of “great importance” from Prime Minister Churchill. Monday reports didn’t offer any hints of what was in the Churchill proposal. But radio reports this morning indicate it was a stunner -- a plan to merge the French and British empires into a single sovereign state. The new Franco-British union would pool the two countries’ resources to continue fighting Hitler with a combined army, navy, and air force. Moreover, every Frenchman would become a British citizen, and every Briton a French citizen.
The reports indicate that Reynaud endorsed the “solemn plan of union,” having sent General de Gaulle to London to complete the agreement with Churchill during the week-end. The premier argued desperately to get his cabinet to accept it. But when they refused, he resigned, and the government promptly issued its plea to Hitler for an “honorable peace.”
LINDBERGH’S WHITE BROTHERHOOD. I’ve read the transcript of Colonel Lindbergh’s fourth radio address, as printed in Sunday’s Washington Post. Three jarring statements jumped out --
“Shall we continue this suicidal conflict between western nations and white races, or shall we learn from history as well as from modern Europe that a civilization cannot be preserved by conflict among its own peoples, regardless of how different their ideologies might be?” (In other words, never mind about Hitler’s years of lies, treaty-breakings, and brutal aggressions against Czecho, Poland, Belgium, France, etc. The only important thing is that he’s a white man.)
“If the British Navy could not support an invasion of Norway against the German air force, there is little reason for us to worry about an invasion of America, as long as our own air force is adequately maintained.” (Refresh my memory again -- just who “invaded” Norway?)
“We must insist on military bases being placed wherever they are needed for our safety, regardless of who owns the territory involved.” (Stalin and Hitler couldn’t have said it better -- there’s no reason to bother with the “rights” of those pesky little neutral countries.)
WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT? Hanson W. Baldwin looks at the possibilities of a climactic German-British battle in a Sunday New York Times analysis. His best guess is a possibility that sounds realistic -- and depressing -- but hasn’t been discussed much so far --
“It seems certain that if Herr Hitler tries either invasion or attrition he will strike hard and perhaps with new weapons; it seems certain that England will be in deadly peril and perhaps may succumb, but it seems equally certain that Herr Hitler may dig his own grave. If he tries attrition, the struggle may be long; it will be blockade against blockade, with Britain attempting to blockade a continent with superior sea power, Hitler blockading an island with air power and submarines. If he tries invasion ‘all bets are off,’ for not since 1066, when Harold of England died at Hastings with an arrow through his eye before the victorious hosts of William the Conqueror, has history recorded a similar situation. There is a third possibility -- and it is, perhaps, more likely than the other two. The war may become a stalemate; Britain greatly suffering, greatly weakened; Germany also weakened, or ready -- in order to avoid that weakening -- to arrange a peace that would insure her continued dominance of the mainland of Europe. In such an eventuality the world might again face another Napoleonic era, with Britain facing alone a seething continent; first, perhaps in an armed truce, then in another recrudescence of war.”
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