LIBERATION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 19 October 1942, Page 2

LIBERATION

THE FEELING OF FRANCE The deep and fervent wish of tV majority of the French can be rer dored by one word—liberation, bl \hi> word e>>\ ers two ideas—ind< pendence for their land and pol lical freedom inside it, writes And] Labarthc in "La France Libre.” Cei tainly. the French are too fiercely rt sent fill of the invader, too obsessc by the cares of every day, to lot themselves in subtleties over the d< tails of France's future institution Hut they know spontaneously qui clearly what they will never acee] and what they will demand. At ti present time, they are experiencß !'W‘; occupation by the foreigner at a police dictatorship. They detest both. The liberate for which they light and die meal I hat their land will recover its grea ncss mid its independence, that tl I'oople will recover their sovereignt that the individual will recover tl rights which a century and a ha ago were declared inalienable. . . Since the great Revolution, tl national idea and the democrat idea have been inextricably bour up m the mind of the nation. Th connect]' m lias never been broken < weakened. At all the great crises i ‘ Ulr history, the will t«, resist, to d' lend their country to the* uttermo: has come from the people. Once again, it was the Frencli pe< pie who rose at St. Nazaire; tl French people who shoot from tl •shadows at the occupier. To che their patriotism or their aspiratioi towards t-'tal freedom would be !!!(, U!' the- rr kof an explosion of p pular feeling.