Footnote to Defeat

Cold, hungry, beaten France, the France that had lost even hope, last week was a world power to reckon with. For in Madagascar France held one of the world's most vital seaposts (see p. 15). In her Navy she held the balance of world naval power.

Vice Premier Admiral Jean Franqois Darlan announced last week that the 26,500-ton battleship Dunkerque had put into the French Mediterranean naval base of Toulon under her own power. Even after 18 months of repair work at Oran, where she was blasted at anchor by the British Fleet (TIME, Sept. 16, 1940), the Dunkerque is still too battered for active service. But Nazi Germany knows, as do Vichyfrance and the U.S., that eleven French cruisers are in European or African waters, handy for immediate action, that the Dunkerque's sister ship Strasbourg is fit & ready, that the balance of the Vichy Fleet is quietly undergoing repairing and refitting.

Knowing these things, both Berlin and Washington tread warily.

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