Signs multiplied this week that the formation of Adolf Hitler’s long-promised European Federation was close at hand: > In Ankara German Ambassador Franz von Papen told a correspondent that Germany would make a strong bid for peace with Great Britain as soon as the “decisive phase” of the Russian campaign was over.
> In Berlin Adolf Hitler appointed Alfred Rosenberg Minister in Charge of Civil Administration in the eastern occupied regions, indicating that, for Hitler at least, the decisive phase was over.
> In Vichy collaboration came to a crisis. From the nearby listening post of Berne, Switzerland, it was reported that Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain would soon go to Paris to sign a document that already bore the signature of Adolf Hitler.
> In Washington Columnist Raymond Clapper, a careful reporter with good sources, described the expected manifesto as “directed against the Roosevelt-Churchill Atlantic Charter. . . . [The U.S.] would be described as remote from, and completely alien to, the European problem. Obviously this would be aimed at providing ammunition for non-interventionist and isolationist sentiment.”
Nobody, least of all smart Franz von Papen, expected Britain to listen to Hitler’s peace bid. Winston Churchill had already said flatly that Britain would never treat with a Nazi (TIME, Nov. 17). Ambassador von Papen’s interview was given to the correspondent of a Barcelona newspaper and was directed at Spain and Turkey. Germany, he said, regarded Turkey as a “bastion of peace” at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, as Spain was in the west. This week Berne reported German troop movements as far south as northern Spain.
Adolf Hitler’s new plans hinged on France, which his armies smashed 17 months ago. According to Berne, he had proposed to Vichy a five-point program consisting of two demands and three concessions. Demands: i) the French Navy would undertake Mediterranean convoy duty “under key German officers”; 2) Germany would be allowed to transport troops and munitions across French North Africa.
In return Germany would: 3) remove all troops, except for “key officers,” from France’s southern Atlantic coast; 4) release all French war prisoners, numbering more than 1,350,000; 5) restore Paris to Unoccupied France and relax requirements for crossing the demarcation line.
Every cable from Vichy supported the belief that negotiations were nearing an end, that Hitler would get what he wanted. Government offices were transferring their officials to Paris. German Ambassador Otto Abetz arrived in Vichy, ostensibly to attend the funeral of General Charles Huntziger (see p. 31), but Ambassador Abetz dined with Marshal Pétain and the next day motored to Chateldon to see his old collaborator, Pierre Laval. On his return he lunched with the Marshal, then set out for Paris. Half an hour later a plane set General Maxime Weygand down at the Vichy airport.
North Africa’s Proconsul Weygand is the only important foe of all-out collaboration left in the Vichy Government. By holding out against German demands in North Africa he has prevented wholesale desertions to Free Frenchman General Charles de Gaulle. His resignation or his surrender to the collaborationists would probably precipitate internal troubles and give the Germans an excuse to intervene to preserve order. It was significant that reports from Vichy included the statement: “There is no indication as to the duration of his visit—or the date of his return to Algiers.”
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