BACK IN PARIS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 November 1940, Page 6

BACK IN PARIS

FRENCH SOLDIERS APPEAR. FEELING OVER ARMY’S COLLAPSE French soldiers in faded khaki are beginning to appear in the streets of Paris amid throngs of field grey German soldiers, says a message to the “Chicago Tribune.” They are demobilised men of France’s beaten army returning to civilian life and their coming confronts the city authorities with an additional and serious problem. Here and there Parisians sipping aperitifs on cafe terraces wave a friendly welcome to the defeated warriors as they tramp by in their ragged uniforms and dilapidated boots, but on the whole their reception is not enthusiastic. Frenchmen have nourished a grudge against their army and are not alto- ■

. gether inclined to accept the many ex- i cuses made for its collapse. The sol-' diers look rather sheepish but they try ' their best to smile. They all carry the i inevitable suitcases which they dog-) ! gedly lugged with them from place to j place on the last retreat to the Loire; River and to which they clung after ■ they threw away their arms. They are all willing and eager to ; talk. The tales they have to tell helpl to throw some light on the causes of' the disaster. They described the waste) that prevailed in the French Army. during the first three months of the i war when herds of cattle and sheep ’ were driven in front of the Maginot Line in order to explode German . lines. Thousands of requisitioned | horses were left to die of thirst because the quartermaster had simply forgotten they existed. They affirm

mat nuge quantities ut anny auppura —rice, coffee, and gasoline—were squandered, stolen, or sold to dealers who profited by reselling them to rationed city dwellers. Most of the homecoming soldiers stressed the demoralising cfi'ect of their "sad and empty life" during the long winter when there was practically neither fighting nor movement. It is clear from their accounts that their morale was already low when they were ordered to counter-attack the Germans in Flanders.

Many of the men criticised their officers. “They were always the first to run away,” they declared. “Our cowardly officers were responsible for our defeat and the retreat in which we were constantly fleeing from one position to another without achieving even the slightest success.” What these former soldiers arc going to do until they find work and what attitude they will take towards the new Government when it really begins to operate are questions that arc disturbing the people considerably. Already Paris newspapers are telling these disgruntled men that they have "accounts to settle with those who sent them into the war.” They are urged to revenge themselves on the “munitions makers and profiteers who got rich by plunging them into misery.” Addressing the returning soldiers in an editorial. “La France au Travail, says: "We do not wish to see you come back with -bowed heads and downcast eyes. We wish to see you return with hard eyes and clenched fists, as soldiers, not victims. You must help to put France’s household in order.”