FRENCH ACTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26621, 18 November 1947, Page 5

FRENCH ACTION

RAID ON RUSSIAN CAMP STRONG MOSCOW COMMENT LONDON, Nov. 16. The French Foreign Office in a Note to the Russian Ambassador announces the French Government’s intention to close down the Russian repatriation camp at Beauregard. This decision has accelerated a sudden and spectacular deterioration in Franco-Soviet relations, says the Observer's Paris correspondent. • The newspaper L’Aurore said; “Up to a few weeks ago Russian agents co-operation with the French Communists were tracking down, arresand kidnapping their unwilling compatriots and dragging them to Beauregard camp, sending them to Heaven knows what torture chambers and death camps.” The Right Wing paper Le Poque said Beauregard was an extremely convenient training ground for the Soviet, Yugoslav and Polish secret police. “A series of street fighting courses, which the Paris command of _ the secret ‘Spanish Republican Army’ organised, had just been concluded. Most persons now in the camp were Polish specialists in tank warfare," the paper adds.

A Moscow message states that Moscow radio, commenting on the French raid, described it as “scandalous," and the search as “ illegal.” The radio said the French had violated the existing Franco-Soviet agreement on re patriation in the raid.