FREE FRANCE'S AIMS

By A FREE FRENCHMAN

WITH France as she stands today, the action of free Frenchmen is the only hope of an honourable future. In a recent Spectator Charles Morgan wrote of the passing of " Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite." I should like to write of what we are doing and intend to do, to restore the motto of 1789.

The first point must be a distinction between the French at home and the French in the Empire. The diagnoses of their cases are contradictory, and action must differ. The French- men of France at the moment remind one of a sick person whose ailment is beyond the understanding of the local prac- titioner. His condition does not compel him to take to his bed, but his body will stop living within a few weeks, as a clockwork motor runs down, if a few specialists do not examine him thoroughly at once and prescribe special treat- ment.

The Frenchman of France is angry at having been beaten by the Germans. He is ashamed of having made that defeat possible by his past errors. He is selfishly relieved after ten months of physical sufferings for himself, of difficult economic circumstances for his wife and children, at sitting down by his fireside in slippered feet. Who would under-estimate the attraction of slippers, after ten months of boots and puttees? He is relieved at being able to till his field, to take stock of his shop, to gather up the social threads of an interrupted life.

But his shame and his relief are contradictory. And the Frenchman of France is no political fool. He has the sub- conscious background of ideas presented to the world by France. He knows and understands his German conqueror, better than he himself would admit. He has already gathered the purpose of the first Nazi gestures, acts and rulings in Paris. He understands that Hitler has already laid down the basis of a policy which must follow parallel lines : (a) Germany will keep order in occupied France, and attempt to delude the people into thinking that they have peace, an orderly life, and enough bread to live on, without telling them either the price of this new life, or the fact that it is temporary, a prologue to the usual story of hunger, labour-gangs, and Gestapo domination.

.(b) In contrast with the "new order" of occupied France, Rider wants Goebbels to show up a carefully fostered disorder and agitation in unoccupied France, as a prelude to a complete hold, and even a complete occupation, if need be.

And the Frenchman of France understands, from stories of dazzling uniforms displayed by Goering on the once-gay Boule- vards and Champs-Elysées, of dinners in state at a Gestapo- ridden maxim's, that the whole policy tends to one end only: a puppet government ruled with apparent kindness by Marshal of the Reich Hermann Goering, Vice-President of the French Council of Ministers. All this the Frenchman of France under- stands, or dimly guesses, according to his cultural level, despite the veneer of relief and home comforts with which he tem- porarily glosses over a shameful phase of his own life in the community which brought him into the world. But this under- standing, or these guesses, are not constructive, for the French- man of France is static.

An altogether different diagnosis should be made of the Frenchman outside France. The Frenchman of the Empire is neither relieved nor ashamed, nor angry. He is amazed, in the full meaning of the word. He is anxious. He took no part in either fighting or debacle. His thirst for good, reassuring, national news is only equalled by his fear of losing property, freedom and flag.

This essential difference between two categories of French- men—those who can and those who cannot act—is brought out and set in high relief by the difference in their respective lives, and the nature of their property. Everywhere in the Empire the father or the grandfather of the colonial Frenchman of 1940 shed his blood, arms in hand, for something which the son or grandson owns today. So it comes that this field, this planta- tion, this business, this house is both real and personal to the Frenchman of the Empire. The field or the house, the business or the workshop, in Metropolitan France is not so real or so personal in a community both ancient and, until yesterday, stable.

This essential difference would at once come into play on the plane of action. The Frenchman of France temporarily fights no longer. The Frenchman of the Empire would fight to his last breath the German or, still more readily, the Italian attacker of his Imperial property. He could say that the over- seas territories never were considered as a whole, as a solid block of action and influence, but as a thin chain, a poorly- connected succession of local interests. He is, on that ground, better prepared for an immediate fight, and for the recon- struction of his country, than the Frenchman of France. Where the latter is static, he can be dynamic.

With these two diagnoses before us, is there any need to dwell upon our creed? The lines on which we believe our compatriots to be thinking or ready to act point to obvious conclusions. Free French people are in England or elsewhere, because material circumstances led them to embark at a few hours' notice for any free port. If they are not more numerous, it is because very few, at home, suspected the imminent end. None, in the bulk of the nation, suspected a Petain Armistice. That is why there are few of us, fewer than the Poles or Czechs in Britain, but we speak, and will speak or act, for many. But we shall speak non-politically. Our first intention is to show that there exists a free France, which is resuming the fight without any other programme than the restoration of freedom. Enslaved Frenchmen cannot fight with us, but they can be behind us, and they can, with help and guidance, sabotage to their hearts' content. We must be their soldiers, military and moral. In our ranks we shall enlist, as time goes by, French- men of the Empire.

So much for intentions. In the field of action, our first work is to raise a military force. The Army is being trained accord- ing to General de Gaulle's views on a mechanised force. The men have been taken in hand by their officers, who are giving them a training which will enable them to play the part of anti-tank units as well as that of shock troops and offensive units.

The Navy's task is more simple. The manning of ships which are at anchor in British ports, and work on propaganda schemes to draw more ships and more men, are the two main activities on which Admiral Muselier, appointed by General de Gaulle as his naval and air leader, is now applying himself with his General Staff. Already a flagship has been manned, and it was revealed last week by a communiqué issued from the British Admiralty that she had already put out to sea, and taken part in successful naval action.

In the realm of the skies, the Air Force is already equipped with French warplanes brought over from France just after the Armistice. The Air Ministry stated a few days ago that French pilots had flown wing to wing with the Royal Air Force, and bombed North-Western Germany. In the Near East de Gaulle pilots have bomber Abyssinia, and helped in reconnais- sance flights over Libya, Italian Somaliland and Sicily.

This, in the intention of the men who lead the free French forces, is only a beginning, and armaments are now being obtained in large quantities. Behind these fighting forces General de Gaulle and his advisers have set up committees of experts, technicians, engineers and industrial workers, who day and night bring French brains and technique to the task of improving both arms and methods.

These are immediate and urgent tasks Our future work will be based on one main idea: we shall be the switchboard that connects up French men and women with one another. We are working today to build the switchboard, and a few of us have been detailed to engrave on the front of it the three words erased by Main: " Liberte, Egalite, Fratemite."