FRENCH AFRICA AND FRANCE
AGREAT deal might be said about the assassination of Darlan, but very little with advantage. He is dead, and General Giraud has succeeded him as High Commissioner for North Africa by .the vote of Darlan's newly-formed Imperial Council, General juin taking over the commandership-in-chief of the French forces in North Africa from General Giraud. This at least might be said for Darlan by his defenders, that,—like Lincoln, who, abolitionist though he was, said that if he could save the Union by freeing all the slaves he would do it, and if he could save it by freeing none of them he would do that—he believed the only chance of saving France in some form or other was to attach her to the victors in the war, and that when he decided that victory would go not to Germany but to the United Nations he decided to hitch his waggon to their rising star. That is as may be. Knowledge is lacking on this and many other points, including the identity and motive of the Admiral's assailant, and perplexity is further increased, temporarily at any rate, by the arrests ordered by General Giraud as a result of the discovery of a fairly far-reaching murder-plot. That need not be -taken too seriously. Both the military and the political situation in North Africa have worked out far better than could have been hoped, and there is no evidence that Darlan's death has more than ruffled the surface in either military or administrative circles. Everywhere General Giraud will be in a stronger position than his predecessor. That is guaranteed by the support General Nogues in Morocco and the Governors of Tunis, Algiers and French West rica are giving him. None the less political questions of some licacy may well arise, and the appointment of Mr. Harold illan as Resident Minister in North Africa is warmly to be ed.
events at Algiers. have their direct repercussion on a much er question, the union of all Frenchmen resolved on fighting ermany everywhere. The presence of Darlan in North Africa, and his full recognition by the American Commander-in-Chief there, was a fatal obstacle to that. That does not mean that General Eisenhower was wrong ; on the contrary, his policy as a war-time expedient was no doubt necessary, and served its ends. But the fact remains that no Frenchman associated with General de Gaulle's movement regarded Darlan as anything but a traitor to France, and it is hard to blame them. Their attitude towards Jeneral Giraud is entirely different. General de Gaulle has spoken varmly of him, and he of General de Gaulle, and the visit of the
Fighting French leader's personal adjutant, General d'Asticr de la Vigerie, to North Africa in the past week is believed to have yielded very satisfactory results. The fact that General de Gaulle and General Catroux, the Fighting French High Commissioner in Syria, are to visit Washington is encouraging, for there are clearly some misunderstandings to be removed there still. Washington is said to be stipula:ing that no provisional government of France shall be formed in North Africa or anywhere else. That is quite reasonable. There may well be, and should be, provisional administrations for the French Empire, the whole of which, including French Somaliland, has now renounced all allegiance to Vichy. But the future government of France is a matter primarily for the people of France itself when they are in a position to make their desires known. They may well choose then to show their gratitude to the men who refused from the day of France's fall to bow the knee to Hitler, but Washington is perfectly right in saying that no decision must be imposed on them in advance.
Ministerial Moves
Once more the Prime Minister has presented the country with a Ministerial shuffle of which the best that can be said is that it will be received with restrained enthusiasm. Much the best of the new appointments is that of Mr. Harold Macmillan to be Resident Minister in French North Africa. The desirability of having this country represented there by someone of weight and authority is obvious, and Mr. Macmillan, with his excellent record at the Colonial Office, where he will be far from easy to replace, is as good a choice as could have been made. Of the other changes, all that need be said is that there is no apparent reason for them, and no particular objection to them. Mr. W. S. Morrison, who held an office rather below his merits at the Post Office, is to be the Minister-Designate (legislation to create this post is necessary) for Town and Country Planning. Thus the cohort of planners grows. There is Mr. Morrison, there is Lord Portal, there is Sir William Jowitt, who, though he becomes Minister without Portfolio instead of Paymaster-General (presumably in order that that office may be given to Lord Cherwell in recognition of his services as scientific and general adviser to the Prime Minister), will continue to plan reconstruction as he did before. The other moves call fot no particular comment except for a word of approval of the elevation of Captain Crookshank to Ministerial rank as Postmaster-General.
As Financial Secretary to the Treasury for the last three years he has set a standard which his successor, Mr. Ralph Assheton, will find it none too easy to maintain.
An American Prophet
It is long (as far back, perhaps, as Theodore Roosevelt) since a Vice-President of the United States has figured so largely in the public eye as Mr. Henry Wallace. In the striking series of speeches he has delivered in the last eighteen months he has been, quite certainly with the President's full concurrence, steadily and systematically educating his countrymen in the conception of a post-war international order. That involves two fundamental assumptions: that there must be a post-war international organisation and that the United States must play a full part in it. Mr. Wallace's broadcast on Monday embodied both those assumptions, and discussed in greater detail machinery for the disarmament of the aggressor nations and the prevention of economic warfare ; a world council and an international court for the settlement of disputes ; and the renunciation by creditor nations of protective tariffs, calculated to prevent debtors from discharging their obligations in the only way possible. A speech full of constructive thought, delivered on Woodrow Wilson's birthday and with full recognition of the great potentialities of the League of Nations, included a reference to the vital but baffling task of " recivilising " the children of Germany and Japan by some external supervision of their schoolsystems. No question needs more thought and discussion, and at once. The Vice-President's ideas will be resisted by a solid and still formidable bloc of isolationists. On this side of the Atlantic they will command universal approval.
The Colonial Question
The problem of the future of colonies continues to be canvassed very usefully and suggestively by a variety of authorities. Reference was made here last week to Lord Hailey's speech at Toronto, in which he advocated the institution of regional councils to advise on the administration of the colonies, under whatever flag, lying in the same area. Now the Daily Mail has reproduced an article on the subject contributed by General Smuts to the American magazine Life. The South African Prime Minister, who, it must be remembered, was the principal architect of the mandate system, reminds Americans pertinently that the British Empire today must be thought of in terms not of a mother-country which denied freedom to American colonists a hundred and seventy-five years ago but of a mother-country which spontaneously conferred freedom on the conquered Boers thirty-eight years ago. The British colonies today cannot be spoken of or thought of en masse. They consist of the widest possible variety of territories in very different stages of development, all of them on the road towards self-government, but some with but a short stretch to travel and others with still a long one. The General raises in a single paragraph an issue of paramount importance on which it would be premature to say much, but disastrous not to be thinking much, when he observes that the post-war world will be " a world in which colonies situated on the strategic routes of the world will become important items in a programme of general security against war." It is unlikely that those particular colonies at any rate will remain under purely national control, though it may well be best for them to remain under national administration. It is to be hoped that the Colonial Office under its new chief is giving urgent attention to these and kindred matters. This country must have its own constructive proposals in complete readiness when the time comes unless it is to be faced with the much less congenial alternative of having to criticise or reject some other nation's plan for British' colonies.
As Japan Sees It
The words which General Tojo addressed to the Japanese people last Sunday betrayed his clear realisation of the fact that the days of easy triumphs for Japan are over. The " real war is starting now," he said to a people who have been at war with China for five and a half years ; and his review of the operations in the Solomons, in Burma, in China, and in Japan, where " units are engaged day and night in providing against air raids," had a frankness which can scarcely have allayed uneasiness. He made no attempt to disguise the difficulties, and admitted certain advantages which now lie with the Allies. It is the latter in the main who are now on the offensive. American forces have dealt smashing blows at the Japanese fleet, and are strongly established at Guadalcanal. The Americans and Australians together threaten the Japanese force -at Buna with extermination, and the key port of Rabaul has suffered severe damage from bombing. The British, now strong in India, are advancing towards Akyab—a movement with limited objectives, but a sign of the fact that the Japanese will not very long be unmolested in their possession of the approaches to the Burma Road. The Japanese position may look well on the map, as Hitler's still does, in spite of recent losses ; but the " real war " for Japan, in which her scattered forces will have to defend what they have seized, has started in earnest.
Freedom of the Air
The question of air-transport after the war, to which refererice was made here last week, is being discussed in the right atmosphere between Great Britain and the United States. That, of course, means no exclusion of other interested countries. France and Holland, in particular, ran important air-lines before the war and no doubt will after it. The importance of Russia and China in such a connexion moreover is obvious, but their interests lie mainly east of the Vistula and those of Great Britain with the countries bordering the Atlantic. Agreements on two points are needed. By a wise allocation of effort America is during the war building certain types of aircraft, which happen to include transport-planes, and Britain other types. For that reason America may find herself at the end of the war in a position to monopolise the air-traffic of half the world. It is quite certain that she will not do that. There is every sign that she is being scrupulous to avoid seeking any advantage over Britain in the matter. Meanwhile there can only be benefit in the formulation by the two countries of general rules to which it may be hoped that other countries will in due course accede. It is suggested, for example, that there should be " freedom of the air" so far as flight by commercial aircraft over any national territory is concerned ; that subject to national regulations civil aircraft should be entitled to land in any country for fuellingor repairs (as ships do in any port); and that services from point to point inside a country should be reserved for the aircraft of tha country. There will be more rules to formulate and more and fa wider agreements to reach, particularly on the status of colonic in regard to air-traffic, but a good beginning is being made.
Beveridge Report Critics
The condemnation of the Beveridge Report by the Industria Life Offices Association was not unexpected, is not on the whol impressive and will do little to shake confidence in Sir Willi Beveridge's work. The Beveridge scheme stands or falls by th principle that there should be comprehensive insurance for every one, administered by a Minister of Social Security and on th basis of a single payment for all purposes by employer an employed. That precludes the possibility of leaving industri insurance in the hands of limited companies, even if their work that field were more satisfactory than it is. The wastefulness the competition between rival offices, and of the collection of mo from door to door week by week—amounting in the years r to 7s. 6d. in the £ on premiums paid—stands condem moment it is described, and the proportion-of lapsed policies the existing schemes is a further condemnation in itself. Ur the Beveridge plan all contributions will be covered by the sing stamp affixed weekly to the insurance-card, and there can be possibility of any lapse. The complaint that an army of collect° will be thrown out of work is met in advance by Sir William proposal for the creation of an Industrial Insurance Board whi would either employ or compensate the existing staffs of Industrial Insurance offices. It is neither surprising nor repr hensible that the Insurance offices should be on the alert to def is their interests, but when the public interest so clearly lies in t opposite direction the public will know what to do about it.
