PARIS IN WAR TIME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 December 1939, Page 8

PARIS IN WAR TIME

* AN UNKNOWN CITY SEEN AT NIGHT NEW BEAUTIES REVEALED IN MOONLIGHT. GAINS FROM- LOSS OF LAMPS. The war has brought many curious surprises, and we are able to see an unknown Paris at night. Paris beautiful as the "Ville Lumiere” is no less beautiful in darkness, for with the absence of daylight or lamps showing up details we suddenly discover the beauty of outline of the great buildings of Paris. Notre Darne by night, especially if a bright moon be shining, is a poem in stone. The Arc de Triomphe. the world’s greatest triumphal arch, stands out in sharp line and curve and mass, The Place de la Concorde, as evening falls and the view is uninterrupted by lights, with its brown Obelisk of Luxor past which the .chariots of the Pharaohs rolled three thousand years ago, the purple outlines of the two bronze fountains, and the white groups of statuary around the square, is a wonderful study of many tints. The Louvre shows more its real size by lampless night than ever by day, and a" stroll along the banks of the Seine affords a view of an extraordinary skyline of buildings—the dome of the Institut where the French Academy meets, the pointed lowers of the Conciergeric and scores of roofs of ancient mansions and houses topped by tall chimneypots huddling together like weird spectators looking down on to the darkened city.

ART TREASURES IN SAFETY. The art treasures of the Louvre are all in places of safety. The Venus de Milo, the Victory of Samothrace, are in special vaults far beneath the surface, and the pictures are dispersed, all in places whore no harm can come to them. The stained glass of Notre Dame cathedral and of the Sainte Chapelle has all been taken down piece by piece by skilled workmen and carried away, as has the stained glass of Chartres. In Faris, sand bags piled high completely cove) - the famous group of "The Dance.” by Carpeaux, before the Paris Opera, the rearing Marly horses at the entrance to the Champs-Elysees, the group of the "Depart ” by Rude, at the Are de Triomphe, the statute of Louis XIV, Place des Victoircs. and that of Henri IV on the Pont Neuf. Thus these masterpieces of peace disappear and hide while war is rampant, awaiting] the day, perhaps not far off when they will reappear resplendent for the de- ■ light of Parisians and those visitors | who come from every corner of the earth to admire Paris.

AT WAR & CONFIDENT. France is at war. and Franco is confident. "France knows no hate.” said M' Daladier when he made his important speech on the attitude of France as the situation first grew threatening. One hears no bitterness against the German people. France wishes to collaborate with other nations in peace and good will. Never did a country go into i a war with a cause more just, and i never were Frenchmen more united (behind their leaders. Taking concrete facts which justify optimism, France is completely united, whereas in Germany Catholics and Protestants alike, not. to mention Jews, have received such treatment as is hardly likely to engender enthusiasm for a poor cause. Frenchmen have not had to accept Kaleidoscopic changes in policy, while the most hardened Nazi must find it hard to follow a leader blindly who makes a pact with the very people! against whom he has preached for years and who has made opposition to| everything that to people represents the chief pillar of his policy. Will the war be long or short? There is a feeling on every hand that a sensational collapse of the Nazi regime is I quite within the probability of the near future, but whether the war be short! or long France has entered upon itj with. Great Britain with the same de-■ termination to fight it to a successful conclusion.