FRENCH MASSES SHOW SPIRIT

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 258, 28 July 1941, Page 8

FRENCH MASSES SHOW SPIRIT

Demonstrations For Liberty RECENT DAY OF MAID OF ORLEANS

(British Official Wireless.) (Received July 27, 7 p.m.) RUGBY, July 20.

From the beginning of Maj- General de Gaulle has been sending out wireless appeals'froiu London and the Free French centre at Brazzaville, Equatorial Africa, calling on the people of France.to unite on Joan of Arc’s feast day iu unanimous will to liberation. He asked them all to be present on July 11 from 3 to 4 p.m. on tile public thoroughfares in French towns and villages In spite of jamming of the wireless and bullying by the police, proof has reached the Free French headquarters that the appeals were heard and acted upon . with moving unanimity. At Bordeaux more than 100.0W Frenchmen inarched past to hoot the men of capitulation. At Nantes 80,000 covered English airmen’s graves with flowers. In every town in Normandy and Brittany crowds gathered in the public squares. Streets in the principal towns, on the Riviera were decked with the Tricolour, and Italians were hissed. Paris showed itself on that day to be the real capital bf France. The Germans had taken special steps, and the city was in a state of siege: lorries full of soldiers drove about with ostentation, and gendarmes stood shoulder to shoulder all along the Rue de Rivoli and neighbouring streets in order to prevent the people from getting near to Joan of Arc’s statue. Nevertheless, from the appointed hour a huge crowd soon covered the Avenue anil Place de I’Opera, Grande Boulevarde, Place de la Concorde, Tuileries, Champs Eiysees and Place de I’Etoile. Below the German commander’s windows in the Place de FOpera, 100,000 throats sang the “Marseillaise,” and in the streets cries of “Long Live de Gaulle! Long Live England!” alternated with snatches of the National Anthem. . The huge, procession moved toward the Arc de Triomphe in serried ranks spreading right across the Champs Eiysees. On Joan of Arc’s feast day, in spite of arrests and sanctions, France showed her true face.'