Off the Rocks

Good, grey Captain Cordell Hull last week waited for a tide, backed the ship of U.S. relations with Vichyfrance off the pink granite rocks of St. Pierre & Miquelon, where it had almost gone to pieces.

Ever since France fell, the State Department has followed a tortuous course, trying to hold Vichy in the narrow channel between collaboration with the Axis and outright surrender. Purpose: to keep the Nazis from getting the French Fleet.

When a squadron of Free French corvettes sailed into the harbor of St. Pierre on Christmas Eve and took possession of the islands in the name of General Charles de Gaulle (TIME, Jan. 5), Cordell Hull was downright mad. He feared this Free French coup might undo all his work.

The State Department issued an acid statement, calling the seizure of St. Pierre & Miquelon by "three so-called Free French ships ... an arbitrary action . . . without the prior knowledge or consent ... of the United States Government."

To the State Department's discomfiture, De Gaulle's commander, Vice Admiral Emile Henri Muselier, held a plebiscite. The 4,321 inhabitants voted 56-to-1 to stick with the Free French. The plebiscite suggested a way out to Cordell Hull. Last week the State Department sent General de Gaulle a formal note, asking him to withdraw his ships and men while the people of St. Pierre & Miquelon hold another plebiscite. Cordell Hull was confident that the vote would go the same way. But the ugly shadow of coercion would be lifted--and Vichy left with no grounds for accusing the U.S. of a breach of faith.

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