HEROISM IN FRANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 July 1943, Page 4

HEROISM IN FRANCE

RESISTANCE TO GERMANS. IMPORTANCE OF THE SECRET ORGANISATIONS. M. Rene Massigli, the French diplomat who recently escaped from France and who has joined General de Gaulle in London, told pressmen of France's heroic resistance. “I vzish to take advantage of this meeting with you to render homage to the magnificent, brave, large-heart-ed men who have grouped themselves together in secret organisations in France, men of all origins, of all classes, all professions, ex-officers, bourgeois, workmen, peasants, artisans, and students. It is within these groups that unity and the patriotic spirit is being remade. “You cannot from London, of course, measure the importance of these movements. This importance is unknown for the very reason that the movements are secret, but this secret army has a value of j.he first degree. What that army is thinking is important. I am sure that, more and more, in the military decisions the Allied governments will have to make, they will be obliged to take into consideration the spirit and feelings of the occupied countries as a whole.” What M. Massigli did not say, but what is known to many, is that the secret army in France is a very real thing, and though at present not firing a shot, the German occupiers have already to take it into account and immobilise soldiers badly needed elsewhere. The effect on the French in the formerly unoccupied zone, when the Germans marched in, was salutary, M. Massigli said. Frenchmen who had begun to become resigned to the situation, with the occupation on the other side of the demarcation line, suddenly felt themselves, with the German occupiers amongst them, flung back into the realities of war. At Lyons they had seen the Germans for a few days prior to the signing of the armistice, and when the people of Lyons saw the German soldiers of today they were struck by the difference, and there were murmurs: “These are not victors.” The early arrogance of the German soldier was gone.

STARVATION & SLAVERY. The food situation and the compulsory labour gangs for Germany were described by M. Massigli as starvation and slavery. Everyone in France is underfed. Rations are very low and insufficient. When the French diplomat escaped a few weeks ago, the allowance for fats was 400 grammes (14ozs) for a ’whole month. Other foodstuffs were in proportion. But even the allotted quota was not always available. Volunteer labour for Germany was not voluntary at all. In the occupied zone, the Germans went into factories, lined up the workmen, and chose those they wanted. In the unoccupied zone, employers had to make up lists of men who would be requested to ■volunteer. Refusal to leave for Germany entailed withdrawal of food cards for worker and family alike, so it was necessary to choose between obeying and starving. Everyone in France despised the Press, which is entirely under Nazi control, listened to the 8.8. C., and had the fullest confidence in the victory of the Allies, but, said M. Massigli, not a moment must be lost to save the French from starvation, for every day that passed meant sickness and death for thousands.