A de Gaulle-Giraud Meeting
At last the long-distance negotiations between General de Gaulle and General Giraud, conducted through General Catroux's faithful efforts as an intermediary, are to bear fruit, and the two French leaders will meet in Algiers with a view to setting up a unified central authority. It has not been easy for any person, French or British or American, outside the inner French circles, to appreciate all the considerations that have so long defied a settlement of differences. The French National Committee in London has been anxious throughout to make sure that nothing should be done which would prejudice the future position in France, or stand in the way of a genuine French choice of government ; but General Giraud In a succession of concessions has shown his desire to meet the wishes of the Fighting French, and recently he has yielded` to General de Gaulle's desire to have the meeting in the town of Algiers. The French National Committee in London has expressed its satisfaction with his letter of May r7th, and stated that no differences of importance exist between his views and theirs in regard to the setting up of a central authority. Frenchmen have observed that soldiers of both organisations have been fighting shoulder to shoulder, and successfully, in Tunisia, and desire nothing so much as the union of all their forces in the coming effort to liberate France and reorganise their nation. But though others can help them to drive out the Germans, the problems of reorganisation they only can solve, and in their own way. It is essential that the conspicuous mystery of the parleys should be ended, and the two groups get together in the cause of their country.
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