UNOCCUPIED EUROPE: In the Latin Quarter

As Adolf Hitler smashed into the Slavic world last week (see p. 24), he appeared to be highly approved in Europe’s relatively quiet Latin Quarter. The Governments of Portugal, Spain and France all gave signs of high satisfaction with the progress of the New Order. > Adolf Hitler’s own Völkischer Beobachter announced that a Portuguese military mission would shortly be the guest of the German High Command. > In the French Fascist weekly Gringoire Spain’s Foreign Minister Ramon Serrano Suner, brother-in-law of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, went much further than mere expression of Spain’s own contentment. Wrote he: “I think that all Europe —continental Europe and overseas Europe as well, although this may seem paradoxical—will stand or fall with the Axis.” Vichyfrance, said Minister Serrano, was “on the right road . . . European collaboration and rectification of the very serious mistakes in her domestic policy. . . . But if … an ill wind blows France off the path on which she has set her foot, Spain will again turn her face from France. . . .” > Vichyfrance gave no signs of letting either Don Ramon or Adolf Hitler down. Scheming little Vice Premier Admiral Jean

FranÇois Darlan began a new series of talks with the Nazis. While Germany and France were still technically at war, they were about to exchange envoys, the Nazis sending consuls not only to Paris, but to Lyon and Marseille as well. And Marshal Henri Philippe Petain finally did something about the men whom Vichy blames for France’s defeat—General Maurice Gustave Gamelin, onetime Premiers Edouard Daladier, Leon Blum and Paul Reynaud, former Minister of the Interior Georges Mandel. The Marshal ordered them moved from various jails to a new jail in the Pyrenees fort of Col du Pourtalet, there to await the trial they have already awaited for twelve months.