§ 11. Mr. Martinasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he can make any statement about the present policy of the French Government, and, in particular, the recent agreement reached with the German Government?
§ Mr. EdenThe policy which has been adopted and declared by the French Government is collaboration with Germany within certain limits which have not, so far as I am aware, been clearly defined. The agreement with the German 1192 Government of 5th May provides, according to the official announcement issued at Vichy, for the alleviation of the restrictive measures regarding the line of demarcation between occupied and unoccupied France and for the reduction of the costs of occupation from 400,000,000 to 300,000,000 francs a day. The line of demarcation would, according to the communiqué, be open generally for the passage of goods between the two zones and also for persons in the case of serious illness of near relatives; the despatch of plain postcards from one zone to the other was also to be authorised and soldiers and airmen were to be allowed to pass from one zone to the other under the conditions which had hitherto been applied to sailors only. No official announcement has been made regarding what may have been conceded by France in return for these so-called concessions, but the agreement is described in Vichy as a new step along the path of collaboration.
Sir, whatever concessions Admiral Darlan may have agreed to, I find it hard to believe that the French people helpless though they may be to prevent the systematic German spoliation of their resources, will be so false to their noble traditions as to work actively of their own free will for the German cause, and thus to prolong the period of their own sufferings and to postpone the day of their own liberation.
§ Mr. MartinApart from this agreement, have any further concessions been made by France in the Colonial sphere?