FIFTH COLUMN IN FRANCE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 226, 19 June 1940, Page 10

FIFTH COLUMN IN FRANCE

Caused Defeat, Says Correspondent MANY EXAMPLES GIVEN (Bv Telegraph—Press Assn.— Copyright.) (Received June 19, 12.30 a.m.) LONDON. June 18. The correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain with the British Expeditionary Force reports that a huge confederacy of spies and fifth columnists beat France. The nation was as rotten as an old tree inside. On the night of May 21a German dive-bomber picked out the Imperial Hotel from Boulogne’s thousands of buildings and dropped three bombs on staff headquarters housed there. .It was subsequently learned that two lines of lights converging on the hotel suddenly appeared in Boulogne’s houses as the bomber arrived. When a French battery took up a concealed position in a wood 20 miles behind the line, and a gnarled Frenchman invited them to partake of wine and then disappeared, after which 25 Heinkel bombers swooped down on the battery, blowing up the guns and killing threequarters of the men. A British major received from a French officer unexpected orders to retreat. The major demanded the order in writing and the officer went off but did not return. A Royal Air Force officer who was hiding in a barn watche'd a German intelligence agent congratulating a French civilian in a town that the Germans had just occupied. Refugees appeared among the troops telling the most alarming stories of German advances, and factory workers broke the morale of their fellow workers by rumours which included frequent reports that the Allies had separately sought armistices, that M. Reynaud had shot himself, that M. Daladier iia'd gone to Berlin, that the French Fleet had been sunk, and that the British had deserted France.