FRANCE'S ILLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 216, 11 September 1940, Page 3

FRANCE'S ILLS.

U.S.A. WRITER'S VIEWS.

"CORRUPT OFFICIALDOM."

(Air Mail). SAX FRANCISCO, Aug. 24

With a harrowing story relative to her trip out of German-occupied France, which reached its climax when two companions were seized as spies. May Birkhead, "Chicago Tribune"' correspondent in Europe, arrived in New York aboard the line-r Excambion.

Miss Birkhead, who had lived in Paris for 29 years, expressed the belief that France can never come back as a leading nation until the "rotten and crooked" Government is booted out. She said the populace is "seething," and the people probably would have overthrown the corrupt oflieialdom by force of arms if the Germans had not disarmed the country. She dated France.'s troubles from the radical administration of Premier Leon Blum, and declared: "The French Government was as crooked as it could be. Like other people in Paris, I thought France could hold out, oven after the separation of the French and British forces, but. France had nothing to hold out with. Why, some of tinsoldiers who fought at the gates of Paris had no guns. They were lighting with their bare hands." Miss Birkhead said she stayed in Paris after the occupation because she. wanted to round out her career with coverage of the war. A friend of General John J. Pershing from girlhood, she was a front-line correspondent in the World War. But illness and a "tightening up ' of regulations by the Germans forced her to leave France. Nazis Get Tougher.' At the beginning of the occupation the Germans treated the French very well, according to Miss Birkhead, but the Nazis then began to get tougher. For a week she was forced to subsist on condensed milk, which she obtained through a doctor's certificate., the food shortage was so acute. When she finally left, the Nazis were wiring Parisian homes to "listen in" on conversations The. homes of the wealthy were entered and stores of food were carted off by the invading army, she said. The populace was forbidden to listen to any radio stations except the. German.

"Just before I left Paris," she continued, "the Germans were tearing up the famous Place de la Concord. They we,re ripping out the monuments and taking out the beautiful bronze lampposts.

"The curfew at first was 10 p.m. and is now 11. Think of that! Paris, which never used to go to bed at night at all, now can stav out no laftr than 11."

She told about one American-owned dairy where she. had obtained milk, fresh eggs, butter and garden vegetables which was put out of business by the Nazi conquerors because "luxuries" were not permitted.

Miss Birkhead's physician at the American hospital, Dr. Lawrence Fuller, had left her his car in the spring when he returned to the United States and she decided to use it for evacuation. On July 18 she left Paris, accompanied by C. H. Outland, a writer, Dr. Thodore Herrill, a nurse and a chauffeur. The party obtained a supply of gasoline from persons at the American Embassy who were rationed 15 litre—about four gallons daily. They also picked up a few litre by swapping champagne for gasoline from German truck drivers. About 4 p.m. in the afternoon of July 18, the evacuees ran out of gasoline a mile outside the town of Chatellerault. A thrifty Frenchman who had cached away some gasoline rode out on his bicycle and gave them 15 litre. They spent the night in Chatellerault, and the Mayor, who had been in the United States, gave them three cans of gasoline, which Miss Birkhead hid beneath the bed in the home where she stopped. On the following day the party ran out of gasoline in the centre of the town of Poitiers. There they were stalled for five days. Gruff German officers refused their pleas for fuel. Finally two German officers arrested the doctor and the writer. They were taken to a makeshift prison in a chateau and questioned at length. Arrested as Spies. "The Germans said they had taken us for English spies," related Miss Birkhead. "Then they apologised and asked what they could do to repair the damage. The men told them to give us gas and they agreed. So you see we had to get arrested to get out of France," commented Miss Birkhead. From Poitiers to Bordeaux and to Biarritz it was clear sailing. But in Spain they had to pay exorbitant prices for gasoline. The Spanish roads were clogged up with German troops and supplies moving down to Gibraltar.