WHO PROTESTS?

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 August 1941, Page 6

WHO PROTESTS?

THE VOICE OF UNHEARD

FRANCE

SILENT PREPARATIONS.

FOR THE TURN OF THE TIDE.

A tract is being circulated in France, emanating from a group of French intellectuals. It shows once more. that real France is no dupe of sophistries of collaboration, and that France is resisting. It also shows admiration for General de Gaulle and those fighting by his side in the great cause of freedom. Below are the principal passages of this manifesto: — “After rising up courageously to wage a war of defence—defence of the liberties of peoples before becoming defence of French soil—France, vanquished by armies and betrayed by internal foes, has suddenly despaired, and under the weight of stupefying defeat has appeared to accept the law, worse, the collaboration of the victor. The people, the elite as well as the mass, civilians and combatants, have appeared to subscribe to the acts of a government which, repudiating the given word, has turned against its allies of yesterday, a government which, meeting the injunctions of its masters half-way, has promulgated laws of exception, in the name of an odious and ridiculous racial doctrine, condemning some of the best servants of the State. "Who protests? Who resists? It is true that across the water, in England, there is a handful of valorous Frenchmen who do better than talk, who fight and if needs be die. But in France? "In France, always at the time of great crises which have shaken human consciousness, a voice has been raised, the voice of servants and artisans of thought, maybe a single man, a Michelet, a Hugo, a Renan, maybe a group of university men, savants. “Are such today resigned to silence, these representatives of the great tradition? No. In spite of constantly increasing oppression they have found a way of getting together to put on a fragile sheet of paper this appeal addressed to the country and to the world. .“No, friends, in France and everywhere, our menial masters of a day, governors and legislators and paid scribes, do not represent the soul of the nation and will not overcome us. We accept neither the renunciation nor the betrayal; neither the law of the victor nor especially his doctrine;, neither do we take our stand with the resigned who would accept easy ignominy, nor with the patient who wait for salvation from a miracle in which they will have taken no part.” The remainder of the tract makes an appeal to youth and to all to be ready “to take un the struggle again when the 'hour shall strike.” It is the voice of unheard France, of the France that is preparing silently for the turn of the tide.