Feeling in France
The attack on Laval and Marcel Deat at Versailles is symptomatic. News from France is scanty, and it is often difficult to distinguish fact from rumour. But there is a general trend that may be accepted as accurate, since every- thing confirms it, and nothing calls it in question. Pro-British and anti-German—and to a large extent anti-Darlan, and to a less extent anti-Petain—feeling is growing everywhere, even more in Occupied than in Unoccupied France. According to an apparently authentic report received this week, a clandestine meeting of former Senators and Deputies to the number of over a hundred has recently been held in Vichy to organise opposition to the Petain regime. It is even stated that M. Herriot, who still carries considerable weight, was one of the number. In addition, sabotage is clearly on the increase, and the Germans have been compelled to create special courts to deal with it. Welcome as such news is, not too much must be read into it. Even though all the best German troops have been sent from France to the Eastern front, those that remain have machine-guns and tanks, and the dissident populace has neither. But a France in this temper may be a military factor of real importance when once a military offensive is begun on French soil. Meanwhile it is a cheering vindication of the judgement of the millions of people here who have refused throughout to lose faith in the people of France.
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