No Pounce

Just where the U.S. stands on the ticklish question of relations with a French Government that is subservient to Hitler was made a lot clearer last week. Cordell Hull made it clear in two statements. The first of them was a warning. Said forthright Mr. Hull:

"We have made clear to the French Government that a basic policy of this Government was to aid Great Britain. . . . Ambassador Leahy has been able to assure the Vichy Government that this nation had no other interests in any territories of the French Empire than their preservation for the French people. . . .

"It would seem scarcely believable that the French Government . . . should adopt the policy of collaboration with other powers for the purpose of aggression. . . . We are therefore undertaking as speedily as possible to assemble every material fact and circumstance calculated to shed light on this alleged course of the French Government."

France's Ambassador Gaston Henry-Haye promptly answered this warning with a series of denials. There were, he said, no German troops at Dakar, Casablanca, or in any French Mediterranean port. He even said there were no Axis forces in Syria, no airborne Axis troops in any French possessions of the Near East. France had no aggressive designs against Britain. But, said M. Henry-Have proudly, "the leaders of France . . . will defend French territories against any attack. . . ."

This exchange of statements sounded dangerously like the kind of talk that usually passes between countries before an outbreak of war. But at week's end Mr. Hull had news of a more soothing sort about U.S. relations with France. He sanctioned release of his letter to Senator James M. Mead of New York, designed to reassure those who thought the U.S. was about to seize the Caribbean island of Martinique. It showed that the U.S. had made a deal and the situation in Martinique was well in hand.

The U.S., said Mr. Hull, has an agreement with Admiral Georges Robert, High Commissioner for French Territories in the Western Hemisphere, which: 1) provides "certain guaranties" regarding movements of French ships in U.S. waters; 2) commits France to notify the U.S. in advance concerning any shipment of the estimated $200,000,000 gold hoard from the Bank of France, now stored in the fortress at Martinique; 3) allows the U.S. to patrol the neighborhood of France's Caribbean islands by ship and plane.

A U.S. Naval observer is stationed at Martinique to see that the agreement is carried out. In return for these concessions, Mr. Hull added, the U.S. is releasing a limited amount of frozen French funds to enable the islands to buy "foodstuffs and essential supplies" in the U.S.

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