DARLAN AND Pk:,TAIN
THE value of the statement made by Admiral Darlan at Algiers on Wednesday can only be accurately assessed in the light of events. In its salient passage the former deputy dictator declared that "my sole purpose is to save French Africa, help to free France, and then retire to private life with the hope that the future leaders of France may be selected by the French people them- selves and by no one else." Nothing could be more unexceptionable, and Admiral Darlan appealed for credence in the light of what he had done for the Allied cause in the last month. Every action taken against friends of the Allies in North Africa had, he asserted, been reversed. Prisoners had been released, an amnesty had been pro- claimed, persecution of the Jews had been stopped, Morocco Frenchmen were fighting with the Allies under General Giraud in increasing numbers, ports, airfields, shipping, rolling-stock had been freely placed at the disposal of the Allies. All this is sub- stantially true, and it is no sufficient answer to say that the Allies would have got them all in any case. They no doubt would, but at a cost in life and time which would have made the outlook in North Africa much less favourable than it is today. But a man's acts cannot be judged in complete dissociation from his motives, and Admiral Darlan's motives remain completely obscure. There will be no disposition to put a high estimate on them. A realist interpretation is the most intelligible. Darlan, it may well be, meant that whatever France he represented, and certainly he himself, should conciliate whichever side seemed likely to win the war. For two years he decided that the future was with Germany. Now, in North Africa, he has changed his mind—and his front. That may deter- mine his whole future policy. It is not an exalted attitude, but it would suit our purposes well enough. Meanwhile it is useful to have the declaration quoted above on record for future reference.
