RULERS OF FRANCE

SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1944

All is going ‘according to plan’ in the invasion. This hackneyed phrase has acquired a new meaning today, when we are discovering in what perfect detail the D-Day operations have been planned in advance.

Nothing, it is evident, has been left to chance. Allied troops have had their objectives fixed to the hour and are attaining them.

Reinforcements by sea and air and supplies of all kinds are being landed, and the wounded evacuated with precise and pre- arranged regularity.

Advance under such conditions cannot be spectacular, but it is certainly steady, and every yard that the Allied troops gain makes it more important to recognise some ruling authority in France.

There is in Algiers, the capital of Algeria, a body that quite properly calls itself the Provisional Government of the French Republic. It is representative of all French parties from left to Right. It is already administering the second-largest colonial empire in the world. The land, sea and air forces under its control are serving beside those of its Allies in nearly every theatre of war, including the Pacific.

It has the support of an Assembly which is as representative of the French people as is possible at the present time.

Proof of this is the fact that of its 80 delegates, 40 were directly elected by the underground groups inside Occupied France.

By every reason of entitlement and achievement, this body has the strongest claim to be recognised to act as the Provisional Government of liberated France, and the British people are becoming increasingly disturbed by the Allied delay in the acknowledgment of this right.

We welcome the news that President Roosevelt has invited General de Gaulle to meet him in America to discuss this question, and hope it will result in a good end of the negotiations that have been proceeding in london.

Every hour makes the decision more urgent.