The Fall of France

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 94, 10 April 1941, Page 5

The Fall of France

HAVE been reading two books which attempt to assign the blame for the fall of France. One is a book called Farewell France by Oscar Paul, an Austrian journalist, who witnessed the overthrow of Austria before it was his fate to be present during the tragic days when the roads of France were covered with fleeing refugees. The other is a book called The Traitor Class by Ivor Montagu, the English journalist who draws many interesting and important parallels, which may not be as fresh as they should be in the minds of his readers, between the tragedy of France and ‘what has happened in other times and other climes. Neither book can be regarded as complete in itself. We are far ‘too close to the events dealt with to be able to examine them clearly and impartially, but we are so close that it is vitally necessary to examine them as well as we are able. Oscar Paul’s book is a piece of vivid and

dramatic journalism divided into four main sectionsBackground, War, Collapse, and Changed France, Its merit lies in the fact that it conveys a clear picture of the whole tragedy from the point of view of one who has only a journalist’s claim to any inside story, but his treatment of the social background and the dominant personalities who played such a large part in the betrayal, should throw a light which was badly needed on many developments in recent history. Both Oscar Paul and Ivor Montagu come to much the same conclusion, although the former allots the blame to wider sections of the people-the conclusion is that France was destroyed by those who, because of their material interests, feared the people of France more than they feared their invaders, Not one book but both books should be read by all who are interested in one of the most significant betrayals of modern times.-(Book Review by Winston Rhodes, 3Y A, March 18).