In Darkest Africa
One of the unsatisfactory features about the political situation in North Africa is the mystery which is allowed to cloak the action of the French authorities in regard to matters which are of the utmost importance to Britain and America as well as to the French. General Giraud we know and can understand. But who are all those acting darkly under his aegis, and, among other matters, taking charge of the investigations into the murder of Darlan? Persons have been arrested who aided the Allied landing, though some of these have been released. More recently other arrests have been made, and a military board of inquiry is making investiga- tions preparatory to a court-martial. It is difficult to believe that groups of officials inoculated with the mentality of Vichy can afford a satisfactory or even a safe background for the Allied armies, whose security in North Africa should at the present moment be the first consideration. General de Gallic has more than once expressed his desire to have a personal conference with General Giraud, and the latter, though now indicating that he too is willing, has been discovering reasons why the meeting should not take place at once. Apart from the more general considerations, military reasons alone demand an early, understanding, for General Leclerc with his Fight-
ing French troops from Lake Chad is successfully advancing through the Fezzan region of Libya, while a North-African French camel corps is moving north on a parallel line ; and clearly the movements of these armies require co-ordination. There ought to be some very frank speaking in North Africa. Those who throw in their lot with the United Nations must be made to realise that they do so on the basis of unity—those who are not for them are against them. In a war of liberation there is no room for half-hearted alliances.
