FRENCH AWAIT A MIRACLE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 250, 16 December 1940, Page 3

FRENCH AWAIT A MIRACLE

GERMAN PLUNDERING PLAYING WITH VICHY GOVERNMENT Germany is stripping France bare, taking what the Germans want and, when they pay for what they seize, it is Avith restricted marks that are not worth anything, according to Dr. Carles Bove, chief surgeon of the American Hospital in Paris. "That is the great tragedy," Dr. Bove said, who arriA'ed at New York after 20 years in France, reports the Christian Science Monitor. "They are taking the best of everything. I never crossed into unoccupied France, but I know that in the occupied section Frenchmen are convinced that Germany Avill go ahead when she is good and ready and take over the Avliole country. They are playing with the Vichv Government, but Avlisn they are ready, they Avill crush the entire country. Right noAV they have about 2,500,000 soldiers spread over occupied France and there isn't a foot of it without a German soldier in charge." Waiting Far a Miircle. The French people are "numbed and in a daze,"' he declared, and are now waiting for "a miracle tci happen to save them." Dr BoA r e /iid the Nazi Governj ment Avas sending thousands of German ci\ r ilians into occupied France every day. and charging their upkeep against occupation costs, which the French, under the terms of the armistice, must pay. "They are coming in by truck- | loads all the time," he continued. "I estimate that there are about 300,000 of them now in occupied France, and these thousands will be added to the Avar costs charged against the French and at the same time they Avill relieA-e the pressure in Germany. Possessions Seized. Dr said he had travelled about 1000 kilometres through occu pied France and that the Germans had taken his motor car, a horse, and all his possessions. He found it best to return to the United States in view of this, he said, and because of reports in Europe that this country Avould soon enter the war on the side of Great Britain. In face of denials that Hitler had attempted an invasion, of England. Dr Bove declared the Germans had tried to cross the Channel and that they had been repulsed with heavy losses.