N.Z. Collector Returns De Gaulle’s Tricolour

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30559, 30 September 1964, Page 26

N.Z. Collector Returns De Gaulle’s Tricolour

(From the London Correspondent 6] "The Press")

LONDON, Sept 27. Through Mr L. M. Nutt, of New Plymouth, a New Zealand collector of historic pieces, General de Gaulle is to get back a much-travelled French tricolour originally presented to him in London in the early years of the Second World War by representatives of the French underground. Mr Nutt has had the silk and gold flag, which bears a red cross of Lorraine, for 20 years. Recently he presented it to the French Ambassador, Baron Geoffroy de Courcel, at the French Embassy in London. He will pass it on to General de Gaulle. A collector of Maori artefacts and other material of historical significance, Mr Nutt, who is holidaying in London, acquired the flag during the war from the Free French delegate in New Zealand, Mr Raymond Triboulet, who was then domiciled in Wellington. The New Zealander had sought a French flag to supplement his collection with historic- associations, and Mr Triboulet, in sending the tricolour, chose well. The flag had been sent across France by the underground movement. before being takqn to London and presented to General de Gaulle.

Later ' it., went to Algiers in the possession of the first Free French officers posted there, and then it was taimen to New Caledonia.

Mr Nutt, appreciating that the flag’s historical and sentimental value warranted its being kept in France, seized this opportunity to return it