Vichy's Admiral Jean François Darlan, the little officer with the big opportunism, returned last week from an inspection tour of Casablanca and Dakar, to which, said a Vichy spokesman, "circumstances give very special importance." Admiral Darlan professed himself satisfied with what he saw. Vichy's control over the forces at Dakar was strengthened by the arrival in France of a shipload of 1,300 wives and children of Dakar residents and soldiers. This brought the total number of such potential hostages in France to 7,000.
But as Vichy looked across France's borders, rumors came that if the Allies move on Casablanca, Italy will move...