INVASION OF CORSICA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 December 1943, Page 4

INVASION OF CORSICA

USEFUL EXPERIENCE GAINED TRY-OUT OF RESISTANCE FORCES. IN METROPOLITAN FRANCE. The invasion of Corsica has been a try-out of the French resistance machinery that is functioning in France, and it has shown that it works (says “News From France.” . Exactly the same methods, directed from the same headquarters outside the country, built up the resistance movement in Corsica as in France and North Africa, when that region was still under Vichy Cells of resistance were formed, adherents were recruited,- and from end to end of the island, as throughout France, orders passed secretly. It is to be noted that the Corsican patriots rose on September 9. No fewer than 15,000 of them met at Ajaccio before the war memorial, and then marched on the town hall, to rid themselves of the mayor, a notorious Vichy puppet. They were in. action against the Germans before any assistance from outside reached them. To the surprise of everyone, especially -the Germans, it was found that the , patriots were well equipped with arms and ammunition, and their activities coordinated and directed from tlyjir own headquarters. PATRIOTS ACT PROMPTLY.Patriots took over the administration of the island until the arrival of the new Prefect appointed by the French Committee of National Liberation in Algiers, who was greeted on landing with cries of “Vive la France, Vive la Republique, Vive de Gaulle.”' It is also to be noted that actual out-and-out collaborationists were few in number, and that there was no massacre of them; they were merely arrested. Everything that took place in Ajaccio was orderly and methodical, with no anarchy. The whole machine of resistance and aid to the Allies worked with smoothness and precision that is a credit to Jhe organisers. It cannot be too strongly emphasised that this was 1 the situation after more than three years of Vichy administration, three years of intense propaganda, of preaching that the future of France could only be secured by collaboration with Germany. AT HEART REPUBLICAN: The lesson of all that is that the French have remained at heart Republican, that they want nothing of any kind of government that should in any way threaten to be totalitarian. Also the lesson conveyed is that the French Committee of National Liberation in Algiers, grown out of the Fighting French movement in London, has proved what it is capable of, and that its leaders are worthy of the fullest trust and confidence of the Allies. There is one other thing these events have shown, and that is that French people are quite capable of looking after French affairs.

Corsica has been a try-out for, the liberation of France, which will be effected with the same smoothness and efficiency. Our French friends can be entrusted with the job.