Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1940-07-11, Page 7THURSDAY, JUb.Y 11, 1940 BRITISH SEIZE OR DESTROY MOST OF FRENCH FLEET Action Necessary to Prevent French Vessels Falling into Enemy Hands, Churchill Tells British Parliament. The Royal navy seized or destroy- ed estroyed the great bulk of the French fleet to prevent it falling into German or Italian hands, Prime Minister Chiu'• chill revealed in the house of com- mons In London last Thursday. The white ensign of the royal navy but- tered Friday from scores of French i 9 S) ) battleships, wm 1 1„10- st1 oyer s. submarines and small craft. Othere 10010 damaged, destroyed or dispersed by British gunfire in the weirdest and most ]melancholy sea battle of all times, It 105 said nearly 250 French warships had fallen into Biitish hands. His voice tight with pride and sorrow, Mr. Churchill told the house of conllnons how with aching hearts the British Government had seen to it that the French capitulation cabi- net would never carryout its promise to turn over its fleet to Germany. It is !with 'sincere sorrow (that I must now announce to the House the measures 'which 'we'have 'felt bound, to take in order to prevent the French) ,fleet from dal'linig into Genian hands. 'Witten two nations are fighting to- 'gether in long and solennt a'lliance against a common foe, one of them sexy :be stricken 'down and oeenwhehn- ed and may be 'forced t0 ask its ally to S l 'release 'Goon 1111 Obligation, but the 'least that could 'be expected':was that the French 'Government in abanlon- itng the conflict and leaving :its whale 'weight to fall upon Great 'Britain and. the British Empire, would have been 'cm -dui not to in'fl'ict eeed4ess injury 'upon their 'faithflul comrade in whose ,final victory the sole chane of French 'freedom lay and lies, 1Mr,-Chsutihjll theft told of -Great Britain's twillingness to release France 'from its treaty obligations on the 'con- dition The French :fleet sail dor British harbors 'before 'armistice negotiations )were 'begun with the enemy. Despite the assurance of Admiral 'Jailor' this 'wou'l'd the done a section of the French fleet cense 'under the .power 'of Ger- 111111y and leaky, 'Bot I must ;place on reoord that what 'might have Ibsen a 'mortal injury was done to us by the Bordeaux Gov- ernment'with fiwl'i Ikoowlled'ge of 'the consequences and of the 'dangers and after rejecting all our appeals at the moment when they 'were abandon'in'g the alliance and breaking the engage- ment which fortified it. This 'was an- other example 'cif rhe caftan's and per- haps even malevolent treatnvent'which 'we received, .not indeed, from the French nation, who 'have never ibeen and apparently 'ever aro to Ibe 'con- sulted in these transactions, thu't the treatment which we received Brom 'the Bordeaux Gaverltmmcnt, There were aver 41110 German air pilots 'who were prisoners in France, many of them 0'1101 clown Iby the- R.A. F. 1 obtained'froni'M. Reyeaud a pet•- senall ,promise 'that these :pilots ,shoartbd be sent for safe -keeping to England and 'orders were 'givet1 Iby hint to that effect, but w hen ivI, Raynaud fell these pilots were delivered over 'to 'Germany (cries of "satanic") in order, no doubt, t0 win 'favor dor the 'Bandeaux Gov- ernment 'with the German 'tasters and' to 'win it 'without regard to the injury 010110' to 1111. Nazis Short Of Pilots 'I''he German air 'force already 'fee'ls, acutely the shortage of high grade pilots and it seetus partioulanly tedious that these 100 skilled anen should be handed over with the sure knowledge that they would Ibe used to bOmlb this country and elms force oder airmen to ‘.0's Duplicate Monthly statements ANIMMINANIIIMMUiraonawill We can save you money on Bill and Charge Forms, standard sizes 11 et Ledgers, white or colors. It will pay you t0 nee Our samples. Also best quality Metal Hinged Sec- tional Post Binders and Index - The Seaforth News PHONE 84 THE WORLD'S GOOD NEWS will come to your home every clay through THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR An Ireteruntional Daily Newspaper n records for you the world's Mean, constructive doings. The Monitor does not exploit crime or sensation; neither does it ignore them, i moo deals corrcatltely with them, Features for h tsY m n and all the family, including the Waokly Magazine Section., The Christian science Publishing Society One, Norway Street, 800100, Massachusetts Please enter my subscription to The Christian Science Monitor for c period 01 - 1 year $12,00 a months 50.00 3 months 53,00 1 month 01.00 Saturday Isspc, including blagaolsi Section: t: year 53.60, d ie:met 260 Name dddrese Samble Copy on Rogiatta THE SEAFORTH NEWS Noran."..,to r'.':a.r,...,.._...,....,.,,, Shan't t'heu1 1101.11 a ,erond 111110. 1r. ):hurehill said the .question as to ,what should es done :shout the French fleet •was discussed thy the Cebin•I1 end never in his experience had the :subject been so grim or scut bre. When the decision 'was 013010, it was an unanimous one, the said. Accordingly early yesterday morn- ing, J'tul'y 3, alter all 'preparations. had Iheen made, we took the .greater (part of the French fleet under our control ,tcheers) or else caned upon them with an aldequate force to .comply 'with lour requirements. . Two (battleships, two light cruisers, 001113 submarines, including a very large one, the Sourcou'f, eight 'dest- royers and approximately 200 smaller .b art extremely1Y useful 1111nevear 110 and anti-submarine craft 'which lay for the most part in Punts mouth and Plymouth were !boarded thy superior 'forces after a (brief notice had 'been given, 'Wherever possible, to their cap- tains. 'I',he operation was successfully car- ried one without resistance or 'blood- shed except in one instance. A souffle ;mese 1hr'ougli a anis0llderstanding in the submarine Sourc0ulf in which out British seaman ,was killed and two British officers and one rating, were wounded, and one French officer was also killed and one wounded. 800 'Join. British For the rest, the French sailors hi the main cheenfully accepted the end of a .period of 'uncertainty, A eonsid erable number --800 o•r 000—expressed an ardent desire to continue the Hear, Some 'have asked dor British nat- ionality, This 'we arc ready 10 concede 'without prejudice t0 other Frenchmen, numbered 1b thou antis who Y prefer fi n 1 s Fre ' tour,ht'w th u. asnehmen Mr. Churchill said French sailors an(1 soldiers s 'who 'olid not wish b0 con- tinue the teetht against the 'enemy would the repatriated, Several French submarines, however, Offered their 'services independently and 'were ao- Icep ted, 'Now I turn to the IMOditerrenean at Alexandria 'where a 01000g 'British battle fleet is :lying. There are, besides French )battleships, 'four French cruis- ers, three of them modern eight -inch gun 'vl1SSe4s, and a number of smaller ships. These Have been ;informed that they cannot Ihe'peen-tilted to .leave Ithe 'harbor and thus fall 'wit'hin the power of time German conquerors of France. !Negotiation's and 'discussions 'have taken place and 'measures have now been 'taken to insure that 'those ships which are commanded by a 'very 'gal - ant a'duhlrai shall Ibe 0'nk or 'othenwise made to teem:pIly'With 000 w•iw'hes. 'Phe anguish teshich this 'process has nat- er•nlly caused the tBritisli and French officers 'concerned may be readily im- uguhed when I inform -the House that only title morning during trite air raid n Alexandria some elf the French tstitts fired heavily and - effectively 'with 0 against the 000111mon enemy, Curious Part Of Story Rut the 11)04 'carious part of elle tory remains, Two of the finest ves- sels of the french fleet -the Dunker- que anti the Strasbourg, modern thattic ernisers — much superior to .the Scharnh0rst and IGneisenau and 'built MI' the purpose of hi-onvg superior to them, lay twith several 'tight cruisers and a number of 'destroyers, submar- ines and 'other vessels at Oran and the adjacent Mers !El TCehir on the French frontier of Morocco. Yesterday adorning a 'carefully chos- en British 'officer --.Captain Holland UM naval ;attache at Paris, was sent on in a 'destroyer to 'wait upon the 5•rencl1 Acheiral Gen:1ml and after (being refused an interview, put (before him a Idootument -of which S 'will read to 'the House the operative pare - graph: (Reacting) °It 'is impossible for us now to allow your .fine ships to fall dura the power 'of our 'German or Ital- ian enemies. We are determined to to ,fight to the end and if we win, as we think -we shall, we shall never'for- t..et that France was our ally and that our common enemy is Gsrntany, \nd we -solemnly 'declare (that 'we shall restore Iter 'territory to France. PAGE SEVEN T-nr i purpose ,we innst make sure that the beet ships of the French navy are not 'teed .)5:11'10 is, by the cemt,m011 'foe. "'Lt these circumstances His 'Maj- esty's Government have instructed alto to demand that the Frenchfleet now u j,1 1< 4)5 and 'Oran s'ha'll act in accordance with ono of the fell'ow- ies alternative's: "!\. Sail with us and - centiute to fight 'for victory against the Germans and 118110ns, ''B. Sail with reduced crews under our cnntrdl'to a -'British ,port, The re- duced crews u v mill the repatriated at ,the earliest 'possible moment. "C. Lf either of these courses is ad- oialted by you, we 'wi'll restore your ship to France at the conclusion of the 'war or :p.ey dull 'compensation if they are damaged meanwhile. Fair Offers Made ".\Iternatively If you fel :bound to •'tipu.lati that your ships are eat to be used against the Germans or Italians unless they break the armistice con- ditions, then sail ithem with us with reduced craws to some French 'port in the 'West Indies—Martinique, ':for in- stance, owhere they can he demilitar- ized, or be ,perhaps entrusted to 2'he i'nierl States and remain safe until the end of the war, the crews 'heine repatriated to France, - If you refuseirhese fair offers, I must, with ;profound regret, require vtut to sink your ships within six hours. Failing the above 1 have the enders of ehe Govermment'10111111 what ever force may he necessary oto pre- vent your ships 'front 'falling -data Ger- man or Italian 'hands," Resuming his speech, Nils Chttrdhill said s continued al day .tel that the .irlev t 1 t l I long and hope :was held the terms would be aecepeed 101111ont'iblotrrislted; Admiral Gen:sau'1 refused to comply. nu dou!hl in obedience to orders 'dict- ated 'by (runnanv from I\\'eislhyarlcn, where the Fraoee-German comedo-- sinn are in session, and an110nnced his intention of fighting. So Admiral Somerville, in 'charge of ttlt'e British battle squadron, 'was ordered to coin - plow his mission !before 'darkness 'fell. At :57:18 pm, he opened 'fire on this powerful French :fleet 'which was pm')- tected 1iy its shore 'batteries. At d ,pant. he was heavily engaged. The action tasted for !ten- minutes, It was followed by heavy attacks from our 113N01 aircraft carried on the Ark Royal. At 7,30 Admiral Somer- ville forwarded a 'further report stat- ing ithat 'a 'battle cruiser of the IStras- b1ung glass was 'damaged and ashore, and that a' battle ship of 'the Bretagne class had 'been sunk, another of the '411 e class 'heatily damaged, - two French destroyers and a seaplane car- rier (Commandant Teste 1 'were also sunk or turned. While this melancholy action wa11 being )0155ht the Other battle cruiser of ase Sir'shuurg class, the i)unker- que, ar another, managed to slip out "i harbor 111 a :e 1llmht effort 10 reach T1,111011 or North Afrinol ports, and place 'hersel'f under German control, in accordance with the :n'mis•tive terms of the Borde:tex. 1,,o, roluent. S1or was persued by aircraft of she fleet tn'm and hit ,by at least t one ter- '.-edn. She may have, 'however been joined by other French 'vx .els from :\Igiers during the night, for these vessels were wet ,placed to join her and the 'MIC le'w1re able to reach Tou- lon hefore'we could overtake theist, The !pointe minister said every al- lowance should 'be made for Admiral 'Gensoul and his officers Hahn 'felt tloemsetres obliged ao ahey the orders of their Government. He said the fear- ed the French who 'fought twitt char- acteristic .eouratge suffered many cas- ualties. He was yet linable to report on the extent of the British casualties other than Rivet the fleet in a'li milit- ary aspects ,WOS intact and ready for action. The Italian navy, he said, kept 'pru- dently 'nett of the way but 'he believed its tarn NV 0111(1 (105113 when elle British started operations to obtain command of the h\l1ditcrranean. - 1 turn noir to the immediate future. We must of course. expect to he at- :�% ttE`..,' . 3 ov �' ar , ., ,, t of 4 Jam and Jelly z,. Y —� Champions use CERTO Mrs. G. G. Proulx, Prizewinner at Aylmer fair (Que.), writes: "1 bi lieve it was due to Certo that 1 won my first prize at the Fair, 1 find. that Certo saves time and spares one of a lot of trouble and worry." SAVES TIME—ENERGY With Certo you need boil only a minute to two minutes for jam—a half -minute to a minute for jelly. MORE JAM OR JELLY Because so little juice can boil away in this short time, you get up to half again more jam of jelly, LOVELY TASTE. A1,10 COLOUR C„s In this shorter boil the fresh natural taste and colour remain unspoiled and unchanged, ,,,,,\\11! SURE RESULTS—If you follow the tested Certo recipes exactly you never need fear results. F. C XTO is concentrated FRUIT PECTIN ... the nad"ai lelliiyinx substance extracted - . from fruit, 1160 UT Free Book of 73 Recipes for li jams and jellies with every bottle of CERTO. tacked or even invaded, if that 'proves to be 'pessilh'le--it has not !proved 'so yet—in our 010)1 home 'before very long. 1\\'11 are making every tpreparation in aur •potter to repel the assaults of the enemy, 'whether they be 'directed on ('treat Britain or Ireland, which all Irishmen, without distinction of creed or party, shatthl realize is in im'rhinent danger Mr. Churchill said the Government had clear 'views on these 'matters but it would not the ,profitable Ito ,discuss them in 'pulylic. He said 'Britain, in full harmony 0ny 'with the dominions, 'was meting through a period of danger :mil of splendid hope that 'w-au4d test -every virtuc'of ,aur race." WAR PRISONERS ARRIVE IN CANADA FROM ENGLAND' Nunib''rs of Gernu11 prisoners oners re• eently arrived iu (1111)111 101' now 111',•1y interned in various e+amps 1hrnughent Ute tnuutry. Broken ulr hitt, 011 11 groups, they iiro .45 1111 u•ibut,•tl 0s to present little oitmeef h1 t'anada. it wt's to ensure that -obey would be beyonrid the reach of 11fth column- ists and parachute jumpers that they were removed from England to Can- ada, 1-l1ad they been released during an invasion of Great Britain. they might easily have constituted a men- ace. Scattered across Canada's broad spaces, they are no longer consid- ered to present such threat. To those who watched beneath the ramparts of Quebec's 01101001 eine del. the war was brought close to Cantina as tate heavy clump of Nazi boots sounded on tite plank pialforlr of the railway siding and the Uni- formed airmen, soldiers and sailors were 71)0(1011 aboard the waiting trains. closely ringing the entire pier One of the most 'widely -known mus - ice/ organizations in Canada is t'he symphony orc'h'estra 'which tperfannis cacti summer 'under the !baton of Reg- inald Stewart in the 'great indoor arena of the 'D'iversity of Toronto. T I1ablishecl 'first in '193141 as the Tor- onto tProntenacle Symphony 'Concerts, the enterprise ;gained international fame and civic patronage which gave steadily 'mounting audiences classical chem .r mesio throughout 'the .ta to months. lO'ocasionallly, in the early years, the "Pu.011" concerts, as they are 'papule anly kn'ow'n, 'were heat•'d on - the air, but it was not mun!till the 'OB'C's policy of presenting representative synvp'hony Orchestras of t'he Dominion's'principal, cities wa's formulated and put into e'f felt, that the )concerts became a reg - (tar 'feature ,cif the 'Cana'dian airwaves. For bite 'past two seasons, the broad casts have been an important high- lig'ht of the summer oproogramane schedule anal again this season under Phi its 113'1 name, The Toronto Phllha'- monic Orchestra is performing 'works of the (great composers before enthus- iastic audiences, and for 'many thous- ands 111000 among the listener, of the OBC and of the Nati'on'al 13roadcast- in'g'Company in tale'(Jmited States. The broadcast portion of concedes i$ .presented on Tlhursela'ys between 110,00 and 1!4:00 pm. EDST. The dates are shared throughout the season with Les Concerts Syinyph'oniq'tues de Montreal. Glimpses behind the scenes and during a• tperfonulance 'are shown above. Top- lieft 'shows Reginald Sbewart nn the 'role of soloist as he has appeared with his orchestra- and with 'many leading musical aggreg- ations in 'Canada, the United States and abroad. In he centre is'John Ad - skin, C Ble s producer, who has eeon- uributed notably to the success of the eoncerto 'with the radio audiences, and on the right Mr. Stewart is seem in a the rectcrieti11 conducting pose, Lower loft shows an audience of nearly 8,- 000'people overflowing the .seating capacity of the arena end 000upyimg every 'footod available floor space. The n'iew at the right dhows the orchestra, -comprising neaf'ily 100 -of Toronto's top-ranking 'musicians, and insert is Harold Snmlbeng, concert master of else Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra. The next Ibnoadcas11 of the Brom Concert by the Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra will be presented on Thurs- day, Tully 18; at IMOD to '1'1,00 p.m EDST, were 600 picked sentries, their bayo- nets fixed. Another set of guards lined the route from the ship to the trains, First to be brought off ship were the civilian prisoners, many of them crew members of. Nazi ships seized by the British Navy on the high seas. Next came the soldiers, sailors and non-commissioned officers of the Nazi air force, army and navy. The majority of the navy prisoners W004 submarine crews. Included in. the army prisoners were members of the Nazi' "panzer" units and para- chute jumpers. The latter wore a distinctive uniform composed of slacks and junipers made of a leather litre material. Masks issued for protection against 'lieu own gas while they were pris• umers ill the British Isles,were taken Meet from the prisoners when they landed in Canada, Lost to leave ship were the officer prisoners. They Were followed by their own batmien, who loaded their trunl(0 and other baggage aboard the trains. An interesting side -light was the way in which the Nazi prisoners studied the husky and bronzed Can- adians who stood guard over them. While waiting in the pier's to be marched to the trains, they con- stantly gazed at the Canucks. The smirking attitude of one party of prisoners rapidly evaporated into one 00 thoughtfulness when a leather lunged sergeant major started to put the Canadians through their paces with smart precision, Many Iron Crosses dangled from the tunics of the Nazi officers. On,, German aviator told a Canadian of- ficer he had received his Iron Cross in the morning and had been shot down over England by four Hui'rie ands nn the afternoon of the saner day. "Your aviators were excellent but short on planes," he said. A young recruit stood on guard with fixed bayonet when a shadowy tiger' u.ppe:•arerl. "Who goes thet'c1?" he challetngeri. "Hibbentrop." was the a'eply. The sentry threw down his gin, With a cry of delighted surprise:. -Why. you're the fellow they're all looping tor! Wait a minute and I'll tell the sergeant" A large crowd had assembled at the football ground to witness a mid- week "local Derby." Among the spectators was the director of a large firm. Suddenly he spotted his office bay, also watch the game. "So this is your uncle's funeral, which 1 gave you permission to at- tend?" Ile said grimly, "Yes, sir." replied the lad very quickly. "You see, he's the referee." A British soldier brought back it German prisoner by hauling him with a rope bound round his body. Offleer—"What do you mean by treating a prisoner of war in this manner?" Soldier—"Well, sir. All the shell holes we passed were full of water and I was scared he would try To scuttle himself." D. H. McINNES CHIROPRACTOR Office — Commercial Hotel Electro Therapist — Massage Hours—Mon. and Thurs. after- noons and by appointment. FOOT CORRECTION by manipulation—Sun-ray treatment. Phone 227.