WHY CORSICA IS IMPORTANT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 222, 24 September 1943, Page 8

WHY CORSICA IS IMPORTANT

Former French Soldier Describes A Romantic Island Of Great Strategic Value

NE of the clauses in the Armistice agreement with Italy is that Corsica is to be surrendered to the United Nations. Of what assistance will this be in the general conduct of the war? Though little attention has been paid to Corsica from the military point of view for more than a century and ahalf, it none the less occupies a position of enormous strategic importance. The increasing range of air warfare makes it possible for aircraft based on Corsica to dominate all northern Italy and southern France. Allied command of Corsica will constitute a grave threat to the flank of Axis forces fighting a rearguard action up through central Italy. It will be invaluable for blasting the suggested Po line of resistance. Lines of communication or retreat through the Alpine passes will be seriously menaced. From Corsican bases, southern Germany and Austria will be immensely more vulnerable, and help can at last be given to the partisan forces in Jugoslavia which have been such a thorn in the side of the Axis. Seven months spent in the French Army in Corsica before the war have given me a fairly intimate knowledge of the island, its inhabitants and the possibilities of its defence. A Fist and a Finger Close your right fist; then extend your first finger. You will have an almost exact outline of the map of Corsica, which suggests, symbolically, an admonitory forefinger shaken warningly towards the heart of Europe. In area it .is a trifle larger than Crete, just over 3,000 square miles. Some 350,000 thrifty, hard-working people get a frugal living from its soil. They are deeply, passionately attached to their mountainous island. But its resources are quite inadequate for the maintenance of a race in which families of 12 and 15 children are still not unusual. A large number, therefore, are obliged to seek a livelihood elsewhere. They go to France. (The Corsican colony in Marseilles is said to exceed in numbers the population of the whole island.) Their love of authority and of wearing a uniform has given them a sphere of activity which they can almost call their own. As non-commissioned officers, as customs officials, and members of the lower grades of the civil service, they are to be found throughout the French empire. In the army the Corsican drillsergeant is a byword. Part of their small earnings is sent home to help parents or brothers to bring up their innumerable children. These remittances eke out the family income from the sweet-chestnut grove, the cork oak, the vineyard, and the herd of goats. Best of all, after a long period of service there is a small pension that allows the exile to return from Madagascar or Tonkin to his beautiful homeland and -to spend | in retirement the evening of life in his native village. For family ties, in Corsica, are very strong. This is what lies behind the "blood feuds" which have given the

island a sinister reputation. An injury committed against one person is resented by all his kindred and they will none of them rest until it is avenged. These quarrels sometimes persist for generations. On lonely roads one not infrequently notices a cross commemorating the tragic outcome of some vendetta. No More Brigands French law, however, long ago ceased to sanction this personal exaction of vengeance. And, since tradition did not allow honour to be satisfied by any other means, many men became outlaws for "crimes" which the national code demanded that they commit. Taking to the maquis — Corsica’s characteristic "bush" — they lived thenceforth by preying on travellers. The nature of the country afforded at once admirable cover to these brigands and ideal opportunities for plying their trade. Occasionally they banded together for protection and to enlarge the scope of their operations. When their hauls were profitable the whole village would benefit, for they practised a chivalry of their own, taking from the rich and giving it to the needy. It was only quite recently that the French Government succeeded in putting an end to this state of affairs. A large-scale campaign in which regular troops were used, was required to round up the brigands. The last and (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) most notorious of them was publicly guillotined amid signs of national mourning in Bastia.a few years ago. In spite of this streak of violence and lawlessness in their nature the Corsicans are the kindest and most hospitable people. Travel about their country and you will invariably be received with marked courtesy and generosity. In every village through which we passed as soldiers on manoeuvres our drinking flasks would be filled with wine-the headiest wine, by the way, I have anywhere come across. And I have known a peasant couple to go out at night with their baby to a relative some distance away so that I, a complete stranger, might sleep in the only bed in the house. Like all the Mediterranean islanders the Corsicans are an inextricable mixture of the many races who successively conquered them; Greeks, Romans, Carthaginians, Moors, Norsemen, Goths, and Vandals. In the Middle Ages, various city-states of the Italian mainland obtained suzerainty over them in turn, There were short periods during which they enjoyed independence. For a time they belonged to Spain and they even belonged for a while to a bank! France acquired the island in 1768 from Genoa and has held it ever since, except for a brief British occupation during the Napoleonic Wars. Since the French Revolution it has been a department (county) administered as an integral part of France. They Speak Italian But the language of the people is still Italian, or rather an Italian dialect closely akin to that spoken by the Tuscans, and it was this language tie that gave rise to Italian claims shortly before the present war and to Corsica’s inclusion in the cry "Nice, Corsica; Tunis!" in which Fascist ambitions were expressed. It finds no echo in the island, however, perhaps because of the memory of centuries of oppression under various Italian tyrants, Besides, the French connection, as already mentioned, suits the Corsicans very well. In the vast French empire there are openings for their services far more plentiful than those that Italy could offer. Nor do Corsicans always play such a modest part in French affairs. Napoleon Bonaparte, who carried France to the very height of her power, was born at Ajaccio a few

months after the island passed under French rule. Many distinguished genetals in his time and later were his compatriots, and Corsica has supplied France with statesmen, lawyers, police chiefs, and politicians. Their "Besetting Sin" Politics indeed are the besetting sin of the Corsicans, who will sit at the café for hours on end engaged in interminable argument on the subject, while they sip their excellent but highly intoxicating Cap Corse or Patrimonia wines, Every appointment of a village school-teacher or postmaster is surrounded with intrigue and patronage. The twenty-odd partiés in pre-war France gave them plenty of scope for wrangling. They did not envy the Italians their one-party state with its tigorous political censorship. A handful of Corsican malcontents, it is true, kept up a "separatist" agitation from headquarters at Leghorn with the help of Italian subsidies. But the movement was far from popular. Indeed I witnessed an incident during my stay at Bastia which revealed the prevalent state of feeling towards Italy. A party given by the Italian Consul in honour of King Victor Emmanuel’s birthday became over-exuberant and some coins were thrown out of the window to a crowd that had gathered outside, attracted by the sounds of merrymaking. This was taken as an insult, coming from where it did, perhaps as an attempt at bribery, and the angry Corsicans stormed the consulate, broke up the furniture, and left the consul himself with a black eye. The regiment to which I was attached had to provide the Italian representative and his premises with an armed guard for several weeks. These people, then, will give every assistance to a landing force come to free them from the hated Italian occupation which they have had to endure since July, 1940. Many thousands of Corsicans have already joined Generals de Gaulle and Giraud. The French constructed excellent airfields, Corsica being the link in the air route from France to Tunis. A seaplane base on the Biguglia Lagoon, a few miles south of Bastia, was designed to play an important role between the naval bases of Toulon and Bizerta. These facilities will fall into the hands of General Eisenhower. ‘