DREAD IN HEART.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 252, 1 August 1940, Page 5

DREAD IN HEART.

FRANCE FACES COMING WINTER. HARVEST BELOW HER NEEDS. LONDON, July 31. The Vichy correspondent of the British United Press says. France faces the winter with dread in her heart. Crops which are ripening are . unattended, arid the majority of the farmers have not yet returned from the Army.' The Germans have ruined or harvested most of the crops in northern France, but it is estimated that tlie harvest will yield only half of France’s requirements. Communications are chaotic. One hundred million letters and packages are awaiting delivery, and telegrams' take five days to cover 100 miles. The newspapers are publishing columns of small advertisements from families seeking news of lost wives, fathers and children. The Germanisation of Alsace and Lorraine continues. . Strasbourg is a ghost city. Only a few of its 200,000 inhabitants have been allowed to return, but the Germans are rebuilding the bridges. Boards are nailed over the broken windows of Jewish shops and synagogues to hide the gutted interiors.

All towns in Alsace and Lorraine are bordering on economic exhaustion. French prisoners are being released from Germany to assist in the restoration of agriculture and industry.

FRENCH COLONIAL EMPIRE.

GENERAL DE GAULLE’S APPEAL.

LONDON, July 30,

General do, Gaulle, leader of free Frenchmen, broadcasting to the French colonial empire, appealed to all Frenchmen to continue the war alongside free Frenchmen and thei/V ally. General de Gaulle said that the armistice terms accepted by the Vichy Government might have been justified if the- terms were limited to a military convention and applied to the metropolitan area of France. The armistice could net be justified in relation to the French colonics, which were still intact-, but bad been handed over to the enemy. The Rome radio reports that the Pope has sent a message to high churchmen of France saying that the true greatness of a nation lies in its ability to recognise truth and. apply the powers of wisdom in times of adversity. France was so vast that site would not await the conclusion of peace to resume her march on the path of honour aud justice.