MISERY IN FRANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 August 1940, Page 5

MISERY IN FRANCE

COMING WINTER FACED WITH DREAD FOOD CROPS FAR BELOW REQUIREMENTS CHAOTIC DISORGANISATION AND DESTITUTION. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, July 31. The Vichy correspondent of’ the British United Press says France faces the winter with dread in her heart. Crops ripening are unattended and the majority of farmers have not yet returned from the army. The Germans ruined or harvested most of the crops in Northern France. It is estimated that the harvest will yield only half of France’s requirements. Communications are chaotic, and 100,000,000 letters and packages are awaiting delivery, and teelgrams take five days to cover 100 miles. The newspapers are publishing columns of small advertisements from families seeking news of lost wives, fathers and children.

The Germanisation of Alsace-Lor-raine continues. Strasbourg is a ghost city. Only a few of the 200,000 inhabitants have been allowed to return, but. the Germans are rebuilding the bridges. Boards nailed over the broken windows of Jewish shops and synagogues hide gutted interiors. All the towns in Alsace-Lorraine are bordering on economic exhaustion. The French inhabitants are ragged mothers being surrounded by halfnaked children. French prisoners are being released from Germany in order to assist in the restoration of agriculture and industry.