The French Pacific Rallies

Far from Europe, the French Pacific territories — the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, the French Establishments of Oceania (Tahiti) — learn of the armistice and the division between Vichy and Free France. Isolated, neighbours of British and Australian possessions, they too must choose their side.

For the administrators and local populations (settlers, civil servants, and indigenous populations involved to varying degrees), the stakes are real. To rally to de Gaulle's Free France, relying on the Allied neighbours (Australia, New Zealand) and continuing the war. To remain loyal to Vichy, out of legalism, despite the remoteness. Or to await clarification.

The rallying of these territories would give Free France a presence on a third continent and resources (the strategically important nickel of New Caledonia). But it presupposes breaking with Vichy legality, sometimes at the cost of local tensions between partisans of the two camps. The remoteness and the proximity of the Pacific Allies weigh in the balance.