A Free French Victory
The capture of Libreville, the capital of the French colony of Gabon,,by General de Gaulle's forces has some military, and more political and psychological, importance. Gabon was reported to have joined General de Gaulle voluntarily at the end of August, and so in fact it had, but under pressure from Vichy the Governor changed his mind and, reinforced by marines despatched by Marshal Petain, has held the capital and certain other centres against the Free French movement. One such centre, Lambarene, was captured by Free French forces last week, and on Sunday the Vichy commander at Libreville capitulated. There is still some cleaning-up to be done at one or two other points in the colony, but it seems safe to consider the colony as a whole as definitely Free French. The development is welcome, for the less of the West African coastline that remains under the control of Vichy the better. Its reactions should not be negligible, for it shows that General de Gaulle, perhaps as the result of reflection on events at Dakar, has abandoned his decision never to take up arms against fellow-Frenchmen. The effect of its abandonment in this instance should be to hearten Free French sympathisers in other colonies, in the evidence it provides of General de Gaulle's capacity to strike blows for his cause when occasion demands that. The 400,000 natives who inhabit Gabon (as against i,200 Europeans) need not perhaps be credited with any violent preference as between the Marshal and the General. gealwhile interesting but as yet quite unreliable reports regard- ing General Weygand's hostility to any form of surrender of the French colonies to Germany or Italy are current.
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