Police Round up Suspects in Casablanca

[Globalization41]

Casablanca, French Morocco, Associated
Press, The New York Times, Sunday, July 13,
1941: Special police, acting on orders of the
resident general, today arrested 27 persons
accused of entering a de Gaullist plot against
the security of the State. The police said the
activities of the group were directed from
Tangier.

London, Special Cable to The New York
Times, By Craig Thompson, Sunday, July 13,
1941: The signing of an agreement by which
Britain and Russia pledge to each other full
war assistance and undertake not to sign a
peace treaty except by mutual agreement was
announced simultaneously in London and
Moscow today. ... The signatures of Sir
Stafford Cripps, the British Ambassador, and
Vyacheslaff M. Molotoff, Russian Foreign
Commissar, were placed on the short, simple
document in Moscow yesterday afternoon.
The terms seemed to have been reached easily
in two conversations between Sir Stafford and
Premier Joseph Stalin, one last Tuesday and
the other Thursday, allowing time for Sir
Stafford to communicate with his
government and obtain its approval. ... The
announcement was: "His Majesty's
Government in the United Kingdom and the
Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics have concluded the present
agreement and declare as follows: 1. The two
governments mutually undertake to render each
other assistance and support of all kinds in the
present war against Hitlerite Germany. 2.
They further undertake that during this war
they will neither negotiate nor conclude an
armistice or treaty of peace except by mutual
agreement. The contracting parties have
agreed that this agreement enters into force as
from the moment of signature and is not
subject to ratification." ... Although the
agreement is regarded here as important, it
merely reduces to paper promises already
undertaken by the heads of both governments
on assistance and alliance. ... As far as the
British were concerned, there was little in the
agreement as drawn in Moscow to require long
conversations and it was regarded here as
likely that Premier Stalin felt the same way
about it. At any rate, the British Ambassador
saw Mr. Stalin for the first time after his return
from London last Tuesday, and it was believed
the general frame of the agreement was
decided upon then. ...From the descriptions
received here, the ceremony of signing was in
Mr. Molotoff's Kremlin office and was attended
by Mr. Stalin and other Russian officials, as well
as Lieut. Gen. F.N. Mason Macfarlane, who is
in charge of the British Military Mission in
Moscow, as well as other members of that
mission. After the ceremony Mr. Stalin and
Mr. Molotoff drank toasts to the British
representatives. ... The British declared that
throughout the negotiations the governments of
the dominions and of the United States had
been kept fully informed at all times. At the
same time in London concurrent talks of an
almost identical nature were being carried on
between Mr. Eden and Ivan M. Maisky, the
Russian Ambassador to Britain. ... It is not
sure what sort of military assistance Britain can
give Russia. There have been proposals from
unofficial sources [actually Stalin] that an
invasion force be sent against German-occupied
France, with the idea of causing Herr Hitler to
divert part of his Eastern Front army back to
the Western front. The argument offered
against this is that Britain is not prepared to
launch an offensive big enough to be greatly
effective. ... [Using the old guilt-trip routine,
often used since it was/is common knowledge
that western democracies are frequently suckers
for simplistic ploys, Stalin was beginning to
complain that his armies were doing all the
bleeding. But the British were telling the truth
about the difficulty of a cross-channel invasion.
A look at some of the factors of the Allied
invasion, eventually launched in early June
1944 gives the evidence: The British routinely
decoded top-secret German transmissions.
United States production, peaking in 1944,
dwarfed all other war production, as Allied
forces concentrated in southern England. The
Allies completely controlled the sea and air.
Thousands of Allied warcraft roamed the skies
of Northern France shooting up anything that
moved. British/U.S. troop transports and
supply ships criss-crossed the English Channel
uncontested. The Eastern Front tied down the
bulk of Germany's military. Lesser-quality
troops filled out the ranks of German forces in
Northern France. Hitler held back the best
available German fighting division in Northern
France during the initial Allied landing because
Allied deception tactics gave the appearance
that the first landing was not actually the main
force. Despite the above disadvantages, the
Germans contained and bottled-up the Allied
landing forces in a small sector of Northern
France for almost two months before the Allies
could affect a breakout.] ... There is some
concern diplomatically that the agreement will
become a handy tool of the German
propaganda machine, which is expected to
flood America and Spain with declarations that
Britain has now joined hands with bolshevism.

[Stay tuned for late breaking war bulletins.
... Globalization41.]

[varjag]

Ah..Globie. I've seen the movie about this. Bogie and Claude was in it - and they were 'the usual suspects'! Right?