FIGHTING FRENCH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 September 1943, Page 5

FIGHTING FRENCH

A BRAVE MAN’S WORDS.

NAZI GUARDS & GESTAPO DEFIED.

He must remain unknown, the man who wrote the following lines: — “The dead among the Fighting French will have made' it possible for our children to read the history of their country without a blush of shame. “Those who have been shot on our soil, those who have fallen amidst the flames of their aeroplanes, those who hung on to the sands of Bir Hakeim, those who disappeared with their convoying ships and in their submarines made no conditions of service. “Our children will remember them, as they will also remember all the soldiers of Fighting France, not only those who fight the enemy in broad daylight but’those who find themselves in opposition to their own compatriots sold to the enemy or blinded by his propaganda, those who may be shot in public but who have to preach their faith and hope in the destiny of their country in secret places, those who at times have to disavow even their own family. “Tomorrow victory will be ours, and our victory will be magnificent because we shall , have fought for it, bought it by our own dead. “Since the armistice, General de Gaulle has caused the flag of France to fly in every part of the world, has restored our prestige and maintained intact the place of France in the victory to come.” The man who wrote those lines must remain unknown because he is now in France. What he wrote appeared in a clandestine rcnch paper, whose editors and distributors are condemned to death in advance if caught. He is an officer of the Fighting French, returned to France to organise and train, one of those brave men circulating through rance in spite of guards and Gestapo, preparing their countrymen for the great day that is near. \