FRANCE AT WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 311, 20 September 1918, Page 6

FRANCE AT WAR

HOW PARIS SUFFERS. A special entertainment in aid cf the Paris artists' fund for the blind soldiers of France was given in the King's Theatre last night. A very interesting programme was provided, and though the attendance was not as large as it would have beeu if Wellington .people generally had understood the nature of the entertainment ■ offered them, a substantial addition was made to the fund. Mr. J. Hutcheson, in opening the proceedings explained that MM. Willy Rogers and Raoul Bigazzi were soldierartists who had served their country in the field as long as they were able, and were now engaged collecting money for tbe million franc fund that the artists of Paris had undertaken to raise for the establishment of a home for blind French soldiers. There .were over 55,000 of these soldiers in France, and their need was,great. M. Rogers, in the course of a brief speech, said that people who visited Paris to-day had to revise the old idea that the French people were mere frivolous lovers of amusement. France had thrown herself heart an soul into the supreme task of defeating the brutal enemy, who had tried to drag her in tlie dust. Paris'was'beautiful stilly but the men to be seen there were either old, disabled, or in uniform.- The Paiisienuo could be seen in.the theatre in the evening, still the best-dressed woman in Europe. But let the visitor ask her-to take off her-gloves aud he would find that her little hands were spoiled by hard work. 11l France to-day everybody worked. The women were obliged to work, for they must" make the munitions while their men fought, bled,,aud died. "But Paris will always be ■Paris," added M. Rogers, "and if Paris suffers, she suers with elegance." Ho told a story of a New Zealand boy he met in the French capital, and of the amusing situations created by the colonial soldier's belief that a constant repetition of ''Oui, oui" would placo him on terms' of understanding with all French people. "Do you like, the French people?" M. Rogers asked tho audience in conch> sion-. "Would you like to see tho Kaiser to hell? Have you enough of the speakers?" Tho audience responded, "Oui, oui," with hearty appreciation. The chief item on the programme was the display of official French war pictures showing the work of tho French Navy. The pictures were most interesting. They showed the warships of France carrying ou their share of tho naval war in the Mediterranean, hunting submarines, attacking enemy craft, shelling coast stations, and landing troops. During an interval one of the pictures brought to Wellington by .the French visitors, a vigorous sketch' of British troops going "over tho top," was sold by auction in a.novel manner. Members of the Commercial Travellers' Club carried baskets through ilia audience), and .tho picture was to go to the person who put the last silver coin in these baskets.' Each collector shouted "Last" when ho received a. coin, and tho auctioneer followed these calls, and closed the auction at a moment of his own choosing. The picture went to a gentleman who kept a collector standing at his elbow, shouting "Last" continuously at sixpence a shout as long as necessary. At the close of the programme Mile. Declono sang "Tho Marseillaiso."-