Christmas Eve, 1941 The predawn blackness over the frigid waters of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence is broken by the flash of signal lamps, "Execute the mission ordered.". A Free French task force slips past the undefended entrance to the harbor of Saint Pierre. A lookout reports no signs of life on shore. His Captain replies, "They sleep and dream of us for Christmas.". The mail boat to Miquelon approaches and is ordered to turned about and follow along side. It complies. A fishing dory emerges from the mist and passes the flotilla unmolested. The corvettes near the snow covered coal wharf. A solitary figure, an ancient Breton fisherman, spies the Cross of Lorraine and races down the Quai de Ronciere. The click clack of the old man’s sabots on the icy pavement and his bilingual curses, "Petain, le sacre bleu cochon, le old goat!" can be heard across the whole of the island. Sailors on the first of the ships to brush the dock toss him the bowline. As he secures it to the bollard the man exclaims again, "Vive de Gaulle, at last I can say it. Vive de Gaulle!". Free French sailors and marines in full battle dress race from their ships. By now a crowd of bleary eyed Saint Pierrais has gathered to cheer them on with shouts of Vive de Gaulle!, Vive Muselier! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Émile_Muselier Homemade banners, Tricolors emblazoned with Croix de Lorraine, flutter in the chill North Atlantic breeze. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Lorraine The assault force, intent on seizing the town’s key administrative centers; the town hall, post office, telegraph station and radio transmitter, seems oblivious to their welcome. They meet no resistance. The island’s 11 gendarmes surrender their Vichy supplied machine guns and offer to assist in rounding up the usual suspects. Not a shot is fired nor a drop of blood spilled. The operation is over in half an hour. The Vichy Administrator, an aristocratic Parisian, Gilbert Baron de Bournat, is taken into custody and led off to the Aconit, Muselier’s flagship. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_corvette_Aconit http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.grandcolombier.com/histoire/1918-1939-lentre-deux-guerres/1915-1941-administrateurs-et-gouverneurs/&ei=FW7JScrKG5HItQOp6rTyBQ&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522Gilbert%2BBaron%2Bde%2BBournat%2522%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG The assembled crowd taunts him with shouts of Vive de Gaulle! The Administrator stops short of the gangplank, turns about, silences the mob with an intimidating glare, and snaps off a crisp, "Vive Petain!". Admiral Muselier makes his way to the town hall where he reads a proclamation: "Inhabitants of the French islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon; Conforming to General de Gaulle’s orders, I have come to let you take part freely and in due order in a plebiscite, for which you have begged so long. You may now choose between the course of the Free French and the course of collaboration with the Axis powers, who starve, humiliate and martyr our country. There is no doubt in my mind that the oldest French territory overseas will side with Great Britain, the United States, Canada and our other allies and will show en masse its loyalty to the traditions of honor and liberty which have always been the pride of France. Vive la France! Vive les Allies!" Afterwards, the Admiral meets with the local functionaries and asks them to remain at their posts until the plebiscite has been held. "As a Christmas present, Free France will give you what she has to bestow - liberty." One man, Henri Moraze, who presents himself as a simple shopkeeper but who in fact is the island’s richest man, is held in custody. Muselier asks if it is true that Moraze has acted a an agent of Vichy. The shopkeeper replies, "Yes, but I had to." The Admiral cuts him short. " I regret, exceedingly but I have no time for your explanations now. The time for explanations will come later." The manager of the radio transmitter, an ardent supporter of Vichy named de Lort, is placed under house arrest after explaining that his daughter is suffering from bronchial pneumonia. Muselier having just recovered from a bout of the same illness, gives de Lort the remains of the medicine he has brought from England. Still later in the evening the commander of the corvette dispatched to the larger but less populated island of Miquelon returns to Saint Pierre to report his mission accomplished and an enthusiastic reception from the inhabitants. President Roosevelt is conferring with Winston Churchill at the White House when Secretary of State, Cordell Hull interrupts to announce the seizure. http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=%22Winston+Churchill%22+1941+White+House&btnG=Google+Search&meta= The grand strategists of the Allied war effort chuckle and brush the matter off but Hull is livid. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordell_Hull The Secretary protests the action as a threat to his carefully crafted policy designed to prop up Vichy in hopes it will stand firm against German demands for the remains of the French fleet and bases in North Africa. Hull further denounces the actions of those he terms, "the so-called Free French" as a violation of the Monroe Doctrine and the Havana Convention’s proclamation that the American republics will tolerate no transfer of European possessions in the western hemisphere as a consequence of the war. Hull threatens to resign unless Roosevelt backs his demands for a restoration of the status quo in St. Pierre and Miquelon. Roosevelt agrees to persue the matter. The so called Free French have been found in contempt by Judge Hull. Fortunately for them, the case will be tried in the court of American public opinion. By chance, a competent defense attorney in the person of New York Times reporter Ira Wolfert has accompanied Muselier’s fleet from Canada. The standoff between Free France and the State Department becomes a cause celebre. The fate of a few small fishing villages shares the spotlight with that of Hong Kong and Manila.