FRENCH RED TAPE

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 305, 27 December 1939, Page 6

FRENCH RED TAPE

A WARTIME MAZE.

AMERICANS CAUGHT IN PARIS.

QUEUES IN A TEMPER,

(By THOMAS R. HENRY.)

PARIS. On the loft bank of the Seine, by the Pont St. Michel, stands a massive, gloomy, grey building, buiit around a stone-paved court, which will linger long in the memory of Americane caught in Paris by the war. There, day after day, they have stood in line at the command of steel-helmeted policemen, with sinking hearts and rising tempers. For most of them— business men and their wives, school teaehere, clergymen—it has been their first experience in a police station.

The buildiug is the headquarters of the Paris police, now acting under the War Ministry. It was necessary to go there to obtain, in the first place, permits to stay in France, and, in the second place, permits to leave France. The first was relatively eimple, once you got inside, had 400 francs, five photographs of the right profile, and a certificate of residence approved by the precinct police station on the sworn word of a h\otel proprietor or boarding-house keeper.

The second was more difficult, and, during the first two weeks of war, required 10 days or more. The American Embassy got it speeded up to two or three days by persuading the War Office to have somebody especially assigned to examine American passports.

The Difficult Mademoiselle. First It was necessary to fill out an application, which cost" 20 francs, and which was cheeked against the American passport. This was sent to the War Office. The applicant returned day after day to the window reserved for Americans, presided over by a fat mademoiselle with a short temper whose very inijierfect knowledge of English was decidedly an asset. It was not, of course, mademoiselle's fault, since she had no influence with the War Office.

"Non, non, bas, bas," she would bark, a pile of exit permits lying 'before her which she would refuse to examine, although not infrequently the particular one asked for would be in clear view. An attache of the American Embassy was on hand most of the time, and, when a protest was made, usually per-, suaded her to let him look through the pile.

The Embassy did its best under extremely trying circumstances, with nearly 5000 American citizene all clamouring to get home with no transportation available. Eventually, when a steamship ticket could be produced and the certificate that an exit visa had been asked for, it was not even necessary to have the identification card with its five profile photographs.

Disheartening Mix-Ups. Only gradually did some sort of system begin to emerge. There were amusing aud disheartening mix-ups. Nobody knew when an exit permit would emerge from the War Office machine. When it did come through, it allowed the applicant a certain number of days to leave France. A ■scheduled sailing might be delayed aud there would be the whole mees to go through with again.

Morning after morning, the hopeful Americans would gather in front of the Prefecture, where they wuum u.o mingled with about a thousand Italians, Portuguese, Turks, Armenians, Britons, Belgians and Scandinavians. The yitc ] was guarded by about 30 policemen with j white clubs. The whole '60 were necessary when the crowd began to lose its temper. Saving Them From Grief. Then would come the familiar cry, "Amcricain, Britanique, Beige," and persons of those nationalities could get in their particular lines. All in all, it must be eaid that the Paris police tried to make it as easy as possible, and, through the efforts of the Embassy, Americans were saved from a lot of, grief. The police on the streets, patrolling ■ in threes, were not always so eaey to \ deal with ae those at the Prefecture.' They had an uncomfortable habit of: stopping persons who didn't look exactly ; familiar and demanding an identity card. ! Actually, a certificate of application for ! an exit permit was supposed to take the ; place of thie, but the. minds of these ! policemen didn't easily gra-ap com plica- I tions. An American passport, however, i usually proved sufficient, after a con- j forenee among five or six of them, to j save its bearer from an enforced visit j to the nearest police station.—X.A.X.A. |