Wyseatherrs Partly cloudy, Showers 12 Fifty Years Of Continuous Publication :Iaittj Editorial Mr. Haisley - A -tin $cperhfendet .. , VOL. L. No. 164 ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1941 Z-323 PRICE FIVE CENTS Petitions Against Board Plan Circulated French Guns Shell British Air Fighter s AboveSyria Anti-Aircraft Action Taken As Sign Of Vichy Drive To Gain 'Free' Empire Darlan Paris-Bound For German Talks (By The Associated Press) VICHY, France, May 19.-French anti-aircraft batteries were reported tonight to have begun firing on Brit- ish warplanes over Syria and official sources here indicated an imminent French offensive attempt to regain Empire territory now held by "De Gaullist rebels." These swift and significant devel- opments came as Admiral Jean Dar- lan left suddenly for Paris, presuma- bly to continue Franco-German col- laboration negotiations and the Ger- man controlled Paris press again as- sailed American diplomacy as "flour blackmail." "France cannot permit a foreign power to intervene" against her ef- forts to get back the territory held by Gen. Charles De Gaulle and his followers an official French informa- tion office statement said. 'Rebel French' Messages The statement particularly cited messages written by "rebel French" military leaders and dropped by Eng- lish planes on Syrian towns as proof "that one of the objects of English politics is to separate Syria from metropolitan France." A dispatch from Beirut, Lebanon, said French batteries had fired at British planes yesterday following a warning by French General Henri Dentz, Syrian high commissioner, that Syria would meet force with force.' (The British have been attacking Syrian airdromes where German planes admittedly have been landing with French approval enroute to aid Iraqi forces battling the British). Germany already has agreed to re- lease approximately 100,000 of the 1,800,000 French prisoners of war, and Telemondial, an official news agency, said "still more important re- sults of the negotiations would be announced soon." France To Regain Empire I Just what France is going to con-' cede to Germany is not publicly known, but there long have been ru- mors here that one of the German terms for collaboration is that France attempt to reestablish control over her entire African empire. The followers of Gen. Charles De Gaulle hold a huge section of French Equatorial Africa, Gabon, the Cam- eroons, and the Chad territory, a sec- tion of approximately 1,000,000 square miles with a population of more than 3,400,000. This land stretches from the West African coast northward to Southern Libya - a direct link also* with the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Dakar, the French West African port which the De Gaulle forces attempted to take, is far to the northwest; Nine To Face Notre Dame Gould To Hurl In Game At South Bend Today By MYRON DANN The Wolverines will have a little bit of unfinished business to take care of when they meet the Notre Dame baseball team today at South Bend. The Fighting Irish ruined Michi- gan's opening day ceremonies in Ann Arbor three weeks ago by giving the Varsity a 6-2 drubbing and making the Maize and Blue fans think they had a very average ball club. Mary L. Ewing Named Head Of 1942 JOP 15 Other Women Chosen To Se ...................... .............:.: 1