VIOLENT SCENES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 169, 20 July 1942, Page 3

VIOLENT SCENES

HOSTILITY IN FRANCE Widespread Acts Of Sabotage Against Nazis United Press Association.—Copyright. LONDON, July 19. Widespread acts of sabotage in France are disclosed in French underground communiques. Sections of the Le Havre and the Lille-Brus-sels railway were blown up and a German canteen at Brest dynamited. Eight hundred tank caterpillar tracks were destroyed at Lille steel works. Numerous grenade attacks against German troops are also reported, according to the Stockholm paper Svenska Morgenbladet. A violent street battle occurred in Montmartre when the Paris police attempted to arrest a long-sought Communist terrorist named Bourrelier. The Gestapo, co-operating with, the police, finally cornered Bourrelier; who - resisted arrest with a gun until he was mortally wounded. "France's food situation this summer is critical and threatens shortly to become catastrophic," says Professor Le Roy Sheetz, one of the last Americans to leave France. He adds: "This is one reason why almost the entire French population is awaiting an Allied landing in France soon. Once the Allies have established a footing on the Continent nearly 100 per cent. of the French will rise up. The Nazis know this and it is the chief reason why they refuse to release French prisoners." "To the Gallows With Laval" It is reported in London that fighting broke out at Grenoble on Bastille Day. The police and the mobile guards armed with machine-guns were obliged to disperse thousands who had gathered in the main streets. The trouble began when 20 members of Petain's Legion shouted, "Vive Petain!" The crowd immediately responded, "Vive de Gaulle! Vive Le Liberte! Viva La Republique!" Big demonstrations also took place in Lyons, Limoges, Toulon, Nice and Clermont Gerrand. At Lyons crowds cried: "We want bread and guns. To the gallows with Laval!" The Dutch "Kipling," Anton van Duinkerton, was among seven writers and singers seized as hostages for sabotage. The German governor of Holland, Seyss Inquart, has decreed that persons knowing sabotage has committed, but failing to tell the authorities, will be shot. Although the state of emergency in Czechoslovakia imposed after Heydrich's death has now been lifted mass arrests continue. The Germans publicly executed 100 political prisoners in the Polish town. Zgierz, after two members of the Gestapo had been shot.