HOPES WERE HELD

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 193, 31 July 1940, Page 5

HOPES WERE HELD

.. ' LETTER FROM PARIS REACHES WHAKATANE THE STORY OF UNAVAILING COURAGE Written shortly before the capitulation of France, a letter from a correspondent in Paris, received at this office two days ago, reveals the disappointment felt there on King Leopold's surl render and the springing up of a ntw hope. How unavailing that courage was is a story long since recorded but portions of the letter are here reproduced to show the feelings and the con fidence in France on June Ist, on which the letter was wriitn ten. "Out of the bitterness of disappointment and early setback, followed by the trcachcry of a king without honour laying down his arms in the midst of battle, lias sprung the greatest hope. There is no disguis--ing the fact that there was consternation as the first news camc through that the Germans were attackr ing in France. There had been a sense of over security, too much thinking in terms of the Maginot Line, and at the first enemy rush a series of blunders liad been made. But if out of the first reverse came a renewal of .confidence it was a confidence that grew rapidly as soon as it was learned that a French Army had not been beaten in a straight fight, but bad given way before new tactics and on a line weakened because of the alacrity with which the Allies had gone to the help of the Belgians. Had they held their original lines and waited for the Ger-' mans on the frontier the story today would be a very different qne.'« Praise for the R.A.F. "There is no excuse to be made and the French are not trying to make any. Very courageously they changed their commander-in-chief and sacked fifteen generals. They have not lost heart and the morale of the new formations is splendid." Referring to .the treachery of the Belgian 'thing,' the letter describes scenes as the Belgians resident in Paris flocked to the statue of King Albert I on the Place de la Coi"H corde, to drape it in black and lay wreaths of roses at the base. "The epithets as the son was mentioned were various and vigorous." "Since the betrayal the thought.? of everyone have been with the gallant armies in the north. Praise for the magnificent work of the R.A.F. could not be higher. It is mentioned frequently in the communiques, and every French official one meets talks of it and what the French owe to the British aviators " '■The letter concludes: "Steeled with the knowledge of a iust cause, the understanding and! good wishes of all nations who would remain free, and the examples and encouragement of her own great history, Fi*ancet will not fail."