MARSHAL RETAIN PROTESTS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23915, 6 April 1943, Page 5

MARSHAL RETAIN PROTESTS

AMERICAN RAID ON RENAULT WORKS LONDON, April 4. Dramatically closing a broadcast relayed over the French radio network, Marshal Petain to-night referred to the American raid on the Renault works. “I have just learned that the Parisian suburbs this afternoon have been the theatre of Anglo-Saxon aggression—more dead, more wounded, more homes destroyed,” he said. “I protest against this completely unjustifiable act. It adds to the long, sad list of sufferers in our northern towns, in Brittany, Normandy, and Tunisia.”

Earlier in his broadcast Marshal Petain again traversed his familiar contentions, asserting that he was at present preoccupied with working for the renovation of France and averting the direst consequences of defeat. He added: “History will show what we have been spared. If the ordeal seems long, it is erroneous to blame the Government, which is not responsible for it. If the methods and men who led Frapce to disaster and then fled had been continued, France would never have risen again. I have tried to give the best possible regime, which will realise the social programme and eliminate inequality and misery.” Marshal Petain urged his listeners to maintain discipline and prepare for a renaissance, adding: “The triumph of Communism will destroy French national life.”

AMERICAN AIRCRAFT OUTPUT

“MORE THAN ALL ENEMIES COMBINED” (Bee. 10 p.m.) NEW YORK, April 4. “American aircraft factories are already turning out more aeroplanes than all our enemies combined,” said Mr Tom Girdler, chairman of the Con-solidated-Vultee Aircraft Corporation. He added that American aircraft factory employees would soon total more than 1,000,000, compared with 50,000 in 1939.