FOREIGN LEGION

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29906, 21 August 1962, Page 13

FOREIGN LEGION

Welcome Gone In Corsica (N.Z.P. A.-Reuter —Copyright) LONDON, August 19. The people of Corsica greeted the French Foreign Legion with showers of flowers when it arrived on the island from Algeria six weeks ago, but it is a different story now. The "Daily Telegraph,” in a report from Bastia, in the north of the island, told how that warmth had changed to concern over the mounting number of desertions. Almost 100 police reinforcements had left the French mainland for Corsica to help in the search for the deserters. Between 50 and 70 deserters are still at large on the island, waiting their chance to slip away in stolen boats. The extra police are reinforcing stringent security measures which have netted 20 deserters in the last few days. It is believed that 20 deserters have reached Italy, but others are thought to have drowned attempting the crossing. Stolen dinghies have been found drifting and boats have been washed up on the shore. Abandoned air mattresses have been found on the shores of Elba, 40 miles to the east The Foreign Legion Inspec-tor-General. General Jacques Lefort, has made a week-end inspection tour to see what can be done to bolster the sagging morale of his troopsWatch on Beaches Gendarmes and legion patrols, some in civilian clothes, are watching beaches, and particularly camping sites where the deserters mainly Germans and Italians, may be helped by fellow-countrymen. Some of the deserters have swum the eight-mlle straits separating the southern tip of the island from neighbouring Sardinia.