Frenchmen United
The conversations between General Giraud and General de Gaulle and their respective followers have ended much better than they began, and the newly-formed French Committee of National Libera- tion, though its precise international status has yet to be determined, undoubtedly possesses most of the attributes of an established govern- ment, in that it is domiciled on French soil and controls vast stretches of territory, an army, a navy and an air-force. The personnel of the Committee is good, consisting of the best men among the followers of the two Generals and one or two, like M. Bonnet, who have had occasion to identify themselves with neither. Ministers like General Catroux (who in addition to being Governor of Algeria is responsible for the Co-ordination of Moslem Affairs throughout the French colonies), M. Massigli, M. Jean Monnet and M. Bonnet can be relied on to work together with a single eye to the future of France, regardless of what their recent personal affiliations may have been. The appointment of M. Gabriel Puaux as Governor of Morocco is to be welcomed. It must be recognised that some difficulties still remain. Dualism in the highest office may have wOrked under the Roman Republic, but it is hard to believe that the arrangement by which Generals Giraud and de Gaulle share supreme power and preside over the Committee at alternate meetings can long continue. General de Gaulle would apparently like an arrangement which would leave him in the Committee and take General Giraud to the army. He also, it is stated, desires to main- tain the Fighting French movement as a separate entity. That would obviously perpetuate sectionalism at the expense of unity. But some compromise which would admit of the preservation of
some symbol recalling all that the Fignting French have stood for should be possible here. What is certain is that at almost any sacrifice—even of the luxury of proscribing opponents—the unity of Frenchmen today must be unbroken if a new France is to be born tomorrow.
