No better friend of France ever lived than Sir Robert Gilbert Vansittart, who for more than a generation in the British Foreign Office fought valiantly for Franco-British solidarity. When Neville Chamberlain became Prime Minister in 1937 and set out to appease the dictators, he kicked Sir Robert upstairs from his post as Permanent Under Secretary to a vague something called Chief Diplomatic Adviser to the Foreign Secretary. Winston Churchill brought him downstairs again as one of his key advisers. Last week, as the French colonial armies and fleet joined the Petain Government in surrender (see p. 32) 59-year-old Sir Robert...
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