UNOCCUPIED FRANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 August 1942, Page 4

UNOCCUPIED FRANCE

SEIZURE OF FOODSTUFFS BY GERMANS.

VICHY HELPS THEM TO DO IT.

A letter received from France gives an interesting idea of the conditions prevailing in the unoccupied zone of France where the German exercises effective though unseen control. The writer is chiefly concerned with the food situation.

“I was recently in Le Puy,” says the writer, “and at the market at 8 o’clock in the morning, the ground covered with a thick layer of snow and the thermometer many degrees below 2;ero, there were long queues before three different shops in order to buy a little fish. ... “Our potato ration has been fixed at 4 kilos (roughly 91bs.) a month. The potato crop has been excellent this year. All the good French know this, but what the French do not know is that near the station, of Lapeyrouse (Loire) a factory has been set up which takes all the potatoes and beetroots of the region and distils alcohol from them, which is sent to That is why we have no potatoes and sugar. But do not let anyone tell us any more that the shortage is caused by the British blockade. .. “When will our friends of the R.A.F. visit this factory and blow it up? We are all waiting for that. “I do not wish to end my letter without telling you that in spite of our privations and sufferings we have connc.ence in the victory of the Allies, and thanks to them and to you . Free French France will at last regain her Liberty.” „ -r, This letter was sent out of France in four copies by different routes The vzriter promises in a subsequent letter to make many interesting revelations of how the Germans are emptying France, occupied and unoccupied zones alike, and how the Vichy Government is helping them to do it.