Paris a Volcano Straining to Erupt into Revolution

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 64, 18 March 1944, Page 5

Paris a Volcano Straining to Erupt into Revolution

HUNGER, LAWLESSNESS AND FALSE GAIETY Received Friday, 11.55 p.m. NEW YORK, March 17. Paris is a city of hunger, black markets, lawlessness and false gaiety, and with the whole of France is like a volcano straining to erupt into a bloody civil war and a struggle of revenge against the Germans. This is reported by Kathleen Cannell, New York Times’ fashion expert in Paris for 11 years, who returned in the Swedish repatriation ship Gripsholm. The air of Paris is more highly charged with menace than at any time since the French Revolution. At least 60 per cent, of the population is anaemic because of lack of nourishment although the black market provides almost anything that lots of money can buy. Old-fashioned gangsterism flourish es alongside heroic terroristic activities against the collaboration ists. Young people try to get tho most from life before they are taken to Germany to work as slaves while the older people are busy sending one another little celluloid coffins. Persons seeking to vent grudges denounce their enemies and executions are many. Clothes bandits operate with absolute impunity, specialising in female apparel. People are stripped of furs and other clothing in the streets. Illustrating how traitors are dealt with Miss Cannell said an English aviator shot down in the Seine River sought refuge from a woman whose husband was working in Germany. The woman denounced him to the Germans but the aviator surrendered and the woman’s indignant neighbours drowned her.