MASS MURDERS IN FRANCE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXX, Issue 13623, 22 April 1942, Page 3

MASS MURDERS IN FRANCE

MANY PEOPLE SHOT ALLEGED COMPLICITY IN ST. NAZAIRE RAID DERAILMENT OF TRAIN London, April 21. Laval's assumption of power has been followed by further mass murders of Frenchmen by the Germans who have just shot 2 0 more at St. Nazaire where the people are alleged to have been implicated in the recent British raid on that port. The French sub-prefect at St. Nazaire was ordered to select 2 0 people to be shot. He refused to do this. The Germans then selected 20 including a prominent trade union leader.

Thirty more hostages have been shot for the derailment of a French train near Rouen. As usual they are described as Communists and Jews.

Eighteen move are to be executed* if those responsible for the derailment of the train are not named in three days.

Confirmation of the Lisbon report that 500 Frenchmen were killed in St. Nazaire on the occasion of the British commando raid has been obtained by General de Gaulle, says Reuters correspondent. It is regarded as impossible that they were killed during the British landing or from British gunfire. Therefore, it is considered certain that a French rising occurred in the town with the object of helping the British and that heaVy casualties were suffered by the French when opposing the German troops during the raid, also probably in fighting in the town after the raid. It is further possible that the figure of 500 includes reprisal executions by the Germans for French resistance.

The Vichy news agency gave the French People's party version of the incident the night before last when a bomb was thrown at the notorious pro-Nazi Frenchman Doriot, while he was giving a lecture in a theatre. Doriot was concluding a lecture to a crowded house when a hand grenade was thrown from the second gallery and would have exploded in the orchestra stalls, but for the coolness of a women who diverted the grenade. It burst in the orchestra pit and caused considerable damage. Only one was slightly injured. The police searched the auditorium, but so far have failed to discover the bomb thrower. The German authorities in Vichy have announced that a new attack has been made on the Nazi headquarters in Arras. Reprisals are being taken against the population.