FATAL CLASH AT BREST.

Taihape Daily Times, 20 August 1919, Page 5

FATAL CLASH AT BREST.

FRENCH AND AMERICANS. CRITICAL SITUATION. - " PARIS, July 3. The situation at Brest,~ following fighting in the streets between American soldiers and sailors and French marines and civilians is'a. erit-ical and regrettable one. With two Frenchmen dead and seven Americans and eleven Frenchmen in the hospitals seriously injured, a rigid irfvestiga-tion of the trouble is being conducted by the United States _Al‘my and Navy headquarters and the French military and civil governments.

The strictest §ccl‘-ecy is being maintained. It 'is a. disagreeable duty to state that thisA latest. and most serious clash beiween French and Americans at Brest was precipitated by the inexcusable action of an intoxicated American naval ofliccr, in tearing up and stamping upon the French flag in a public cafe. . HOW THE FIGHT STARTED.

',An officer of the American Navy who had been drinking, engaged in an argument‘ in the Grand Cafe as to the relative -merits of the military and naval forces of the two countries. The French civilians took him to task, and in the heat of the controversy the American snatched a tricoloiir from the wall, tore it in half, and threw it on the floor.

He was immediately set upon by Frenchmen. American navy officers, unaware Why (the navy bfiicer was attacked, Went to his assistance Within ten minutes the streets of Brest were resounding with revolver‘ shots_ The shooting became general throughout the down-town section. .

One of the Frenchmen that participated 'ih the argument in the Grand Cafe ran into» the street tore down an Jglmerican flag, alhl§lV_ “tra_mpl_ed_.-“ on it. He was beateia it}: :d;ééi’E.E" thé: émericans. For two houré the opposijlg forces battled in the.;Ls,,_t‘fee,l_:;_s3,-‘r'sev¢‘f,‘Aghal Izéundred civilians rixarines in stoning the American milit:ary police and the sailors.

i f:_Q_I§I2EI%“BES:§ORED BY FRENCH. 1 f Order wa‘s“}as£‘emsa is:li’y“.«:;‘‘r£2s“r‘'‘‘§‘‘’eveiai“ : companies. of French iin_f_a_n__try._to_o_k _ cqg-_ trol of the tox_vn. A company of Ameri. can inarines,‘ Withnfixcd 7h‘aiy‘onet_s, ordered out to assist the’ authorities, recently ‘received? 'a. perem.ptory=.~‘command ‘to 3 leave the city at once, which they did.‘ a ‘That was last -Sunday, the day on {which the President departed for'the !United States.-~ Since then American’ [troops have been ‘kept out_of Brest. [ln View of the fact tlla‘; the American 'Expeditionary Force nowis departing } homeward through here, and that thousands more American troops must pass [through Brest, the situation is giving .-concern to American and French mili~ ! tary and naval oflicer.“ ‘

ROUGH ELE-MENT BLAMED. The rough elementiin Brest was attracted here by ~...t.he -._Wo,men def.‘ the streets, who have flocked to this port in the hope“ of profiting7by‘A-thelliberal spending ofithe A_niericans_, It is this element which, twice since I have been here in the last three fveeks, has parad. ‘ed the streets with ared flag, singing. the ‘‘lntei'natilonalie§,.’?.; ': One. -,of thevir ‘parades was. staged when. the Bresi—dent’s train» p'ulled,i,nto Brest. «It was broken up by a cavalry charge, .For three nights sleep in the Continental Hotel, in the centre of the town, was rendered almost impossible by the singing and shouting of the throngs on the streets, demanding an early demobilisation of the French marines. pijetesting against the arrest ‘of mutineers on the French Black Sea Fleet, and calling for the overthrow of the Clemenceau Grovernment._ PARIS KEPT IN IGNORANCE.

Knowledge of all this has been kept from Paris by order of Admiral Salaun, naval commandant at Brest. The fact is that every effort is being made to keep from the French press and the people the situation at Brest, where the undesirable element of the people is jnflzimed against Americans and is grasping lal opportunities to express rliat antoganism. ‘Only the strictest military discipline of the Americans has prevented a Very serious international trouble. Military police, backing away from a. mob of several hundred civilians and Firenrfh marines,-’ Who were stoning them, with faces bleeding from wounds, begsn firing into the air. Hll tlgev turned their guns loose into the mob, reds seemed they were justifiel in do--11-g, there would have been»: migh:_v bad situation. FRATERNISING DISCOURAGED.

Admiral Salami blames the rough elemcre here for the anti—American feeling in Brest. He expressed the hope that the trouble would not be interpreted as indicating the general Sentiment in B'rcst as that of France. The Admiral has asked" General Helmick. American military commander, ‘to issue an order prohibiting fraternising between American officers" and Soldiers and thebgirls of"the‘ cafes and StreetHc said that‘ the lavishness:Wil§h.\Vhich the Americans spend money has A attracted many Women of bad character here. With them have come men cf

the mot undesirable repute. It is this element which is causing the clashéé with the Americans.