22 MARCH 1940, Page 15

Anglo-French relations can only be maintained in a healthy condition

if we are absolutely frank with each other and air • those grievances which, if suppressed, might become septic. The French have many grievances against us which they are too polite to mention. Some of them are justified and some are not. I hope that the French newspapers will state them in all frankness, since we shall not mind. Herr Hitler hopes to win a white war by undermining our morale. His favourite stratagem is to create uncertainty. By impeding the free ebb and flow of Franco-British criticism that un- certainty is assuredly not diminished ; it is increased. I beg the French censors to allow the British public to be informed accurately and at length of what the French public is think- ing. I quite agree that M. Ferdonnet and Lord Haw-Haw will seek to make capital out of such disclosures. Essentially, however, Germany cannot afford to tell the truth. We can.