Les Français de Grande Bretagne

Abstract

MONSIEUR ANDRÉ LABARTHE, director-general of the Department of Armaments and Scientific Research in General de Gaulle's Legion, addressed a meeting of “Les Français de Grande Bretagne” on August 31, at the Central Hall, Westminster. Courage, decision and tenacity begin to bear fruit, he said. The French Empire is awakening from its stupefaction, and coming back to life. It is rallying to that French flag which General de Gaulle has raised again, to that flame which he has known how to shield from all blasts of misconception, carping and discouragement. This is the meaning of the re-entry into the war of French Equatorial Africa, the Cameroons and Lake Chad Territory, a re-entry of which the importance, material and moral, strategic and political, no one can overlook. In France itself, the rulers have sought to save their country from destruction by begging for a shameful armistice, and have opened the way to the most disastrous concessions. On one hand, the Germans are methodically pillaging the richest and most productive parts of the country, on the other the flood of refugees and the scarcity of transport are creating chaos and famine. Workers have left their factories and hungry children wander along the roads. Bit by bit, defeated France is handed over to the tender mercies of the conqueror. She can no longer even remain neutral; she is being dragged into the war on the side of the Germans.