The Pittsburgh Press (May 17, 1941)
Report unconfirmed –
NAVY TO SEIZE FRENCH SHIPS?
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London newspaper quotes Boston broadcast
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By Helen Kirkpatrick
London, May 17 –
Headlines in today’s London Daily Telegraph announced that the United States Navy has been ordered to seize French ships on the high seas.
The sudden developments in the past two days seem to have brought to a head the crisis which has been brewing for some time between Vichy and the governments of Great Britain and the United States.
Marshal Pétain’s plea for the French people to follow him without questioning has been read here as final proof that Vichy is as much a puppet government as those set up by the Nazis in Poland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium and Holland, not to mention the Balkan countries.
If the United States Navy’s orders are those reported by the Boston radio last night and reproduced here this morning, it would appear that the Americans have reached the same conclusion as the British.
Beyond the bare announcement which is lacking confirmation in either American or British official quarters here, there is nothing to indicate that the United States is prepared to follow Britain’s lead in taking action against the threat offered by a Nazified Vichy government.
The best legal minds say such action against French shipping is no more an act of war than many other steps the United States has taken in the last five months. A neutral does not commit an act of war by protecting its rights against belligerents, experts say.
Portection cited
If the Vichy-German agreement included provision for handing over French ships to Germany, the United States certainly could take such a step for the protection of Western Hemisphere waters, naval experts say.
The Daily Telegraph commented editorially on President Roosevelt’s warning to France. It said:
This took the usual form of a warning from the leader of one great country to the people of another against the policy of their chief of state and his government…
As the Boston radio put it, the American government considers the time has come for France to choose between Germany, the aggressor and the friendship of the United States…
Firm hand urged
What the people of France would choose if a choice were open is not in doubt; they are for freedom and honor and against Admiral Jean Darlan and his crew. A firm hand with Vichy is the best service we can give them.
Informed quarters see the Vichy decision to accept full cooperation with Germany as a sellout by Darlan, who is convinced that Germany will dominate Europe for some time to come and who is determined that he will play a role.
Marshal Pétain is powerless against the pro-German Vichy clique. The British deeply regret the French decision but they say that they cannot afford to be sentimental about this.
Up to French
The British attitude is:
The French can make it as tough for themselves as they want.
It is generally believed that Adolf Hitler, by forcing the French into the German camp, has hastened the amount of American intervention. So long as he left the French colonies alone, the Americans could argue that the United States was not menaced, they say, but German control of French Africa and the possibility of the Germans landing in Martinique make such a direct threat to America that it can scarcely br disregarded by the staunchest isolationists.