Some Now Uncensored History

How Australia Helped De Gaullists To Hold New caledonia

By H. E. L. Friday

IN happier circumstances than those of eight years ago (when her then com mander, Captain Toussaint de Quivre court, tried to oppose the rallying of New Caledonia to Free France) the French sloop, “Dumont d'Urville’’ arrived in Noumea at the end of June of this year.

It was at the request of Governor Pelicier, soon afterwards recalled by Vichy, that this warship was sent to Noumea in 1940 in an unavailing attempt to break the de Gaulle movement. Her visit then was highly unpopular. To-day, as a unit of France’s reconstructed Navy, she has been the subject of an official reception, and her crew, once jeered at, is now being feted.

This sloop was sent to Goro, New Caledonia South coast port, in 1940, to oppose the passage of the Norwegian tanker, “Norden,” in which was Henri Sautot, arriving from Port Vila to rally the Colony. But the “Norden,” warned of her intentions by Australian Intellig ence in Melbourne, and escorted by the Australian cruiser, “Adelaide,” reached Noumea by another route. So the “Dumont d’Urville” returned to port and turned her hoses on the Noumea townsfolk, who assembled on the quay to sing the “Mar seillaise” and count out her commander.

She also turned her guns on the “Ade laide” as she approached. Fortunately, the more heavily armoured “Adelaide” could quickly have blown her out of the water had she started trouble, though instructions from the Admiralty were to withhold such action unless attacked first.

But there was considerable tension for some days as the two faced each other, the “Adelaide” in the outer harbour with olenty of room to manoeuvre, and dom inating the scene, and the Dumont d’Urville in the inner harbour, her machine-guns as well as her hoses trained on the shore, and her big guns still on the “Adelaide.”

On September 19, 1940, Henri Sautot passed within 25 yards of the Vichy sloop as his landing was cheered by 10.000 Caledonians shouting, “Vive de Gaulle Vive France, Vive l.’Angleterre.”

All this time the French gunboat was in touch by radio with Admiral Darlan in Vichy, and Admiral de Coux, in Saigon; but all messages were reported to the de Gaullists by the gunboat “Zelee,” at Tahiti, which had rallied de Gaulle, and were reaching Sautot via Australian in telligence.

THE story of the “Dumont d’Urville,” never yet fully told, forms one of the most interesting chapters in M Sautot’s new book, “Grandeur and De cadence du Gaulliam dans le Pacifique ” shprtly to be published in its French editmn, which I am now translating into English at the author’s request.

M. Sautot reveals how splendidly Aus tralia co-operated with the Free French m suppressing the defeatist Vichy'element m New Caledonia and the New Hebrides His story is worth telling.

Captain de Quievrecourt refused to an swer communications from the new Gov ernor Sautot (whom Vichy subsequently condemned to death as a' “traitor”). M.

Sautot told him that he would be obliged to communicate through Captain Showers, of the Adelaide,” who had been asked to use force if necessary to see that his

orders were carried out. The “Adelaide” had eight heavy guns and the French ship three of lesser calibre, so Sautot had the whip hand and did not delay in using it. On September 21, he ordered the Vichy

Sautot was now master, two days later, harbour-master, M. Robineau, asked per mission to provision the ship with fresh water, meat and vegetables.

“Certainly,” replied Sautot, “if you will comply with my conditions,”

These were that the “Dumont d’Urville’ should leave Caledonian waters by Sep tember 25 without committing any hostile act against the person or property of any citizen; that she should not call at Tahiti (already rallied to the Free French) but go direct to Saigon, and she was

bluntly told that if she went east of this course British naval and air forces based on Fiji would oppose her passage.

Another condition was added. The “Zelee” had informed Noumea, through Melbourne, that another French warship, the “Admiral Charner,” had left Saigon for Noumea with two companies of the French 11th Colonial Regiment on board, to oppose New Caledonia rallying to Free France. The presence of these troops and this ship in Caledonian waters would seri ously complicate the internal situation, so the “Dumont d’Urville” was told to get into touch with the “Admiral Charner,” and inform her that British ships and planes were on the look-out for her, and that she had better return to Saigon.

“One evening of the first week in October, 1940,” M. Sautot says, “I re ceived the welcome news, passed on by a British reconnaissance plane in the New Guinea area, that the ‘Admiral Charner’ had turned back on the same course as the ‘Dumont d’Urville.’ From that day on, the security of the Free French regime in Caledonian waters was undisputed, and I joyfully passed the news on to General de Gaulle.”

DE QUIEVRECOURT, on August / 25, 1940, had issued an order of the day to his crew which caused a lot of angry comment in the town. In it he alleged—and not only alleged but said that he had proof—that the real aim of the Free French movement was the out and-out annexation of New Caledonia by Australia. He added that foreign money was being employed to purchase their loyalty and entice the crew to leave the ship, and that criminally disposed people, backed by Australian money, were re sponsible for the generous offers of drink which the sailors were being tempted with in the bars of the port. He appealed to their good sense to resist such tempta tions.

The commander and the arrested Vichy Governor, Col. Denis, were also behind a plot to kidnap Sautot, take him on board the “Dumont d’Urville,” and have him shot. Fortunately, these plans miscarried.

IN his book, M. Sautot tell? of the other purges he simultaneously had to carry out —in the civil service, the armed forces, and among local Vichyites—before the Free French regime was secure.

He tells of how subsequently Pacific Frenchmen lost faith in General de Gaulle on account of the behaviour of his two authoritarian envoys. Governor General Brunot and Lieut (and de Gaulle created Admiral) Thierry d’Argenlieu.

Neither had had any Pacific experience on arrival, and each completely misin terpreted and so exacerbated local feeling that the two Colonies were on the verge of when Brunot arrested Governor de Curton and some of Papeete’s leading citizens, and New Caledonia, when d’Argenlieu arrested Governor Sautot and five of his leading Free French supporters.

These events, and d’Argenlieu’s opposi tion to the Americans, were to give the Allies a great deal of anxiety after M.

Sautot’s departure, and the book makes it clear why this was so. Incidentally, the man who officially welcomed the sloop to Noumea this time was the Mayor, M.

Sautot—the same man whom Capt. de Quievrecourt, in 1940, had plotted to capture and shoot as a “traitor.”

Captain Showers, whom M. Sautot praises for his skill as a seaman, and tact as a diplomat, is now a member of the Navy Board in Melbourne.

Dr. R .J. Snodgrass, Acting Director of Medical Services, Fiji, left the Colony recently for London on sick leave.