WILD CELEBRATIONS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 282, 25 August 1944, Page 5

WILD CELEBRATIONS

Free France And Tunisia LONDON. August 23. Correspondents cabling tonight from liberated areas of France report that.the French population are wild with delight and celebrations are being held in every town and village. . Carefully-hoarded stocks of wine are being brought out and Allied troops are being royally entertained. Reuter’s correspondent says: French refugees, wheeling meagre belongings in prams and carts, did not receive the news boisterously, but it is evident that the news has done much to relieve their terrible sufferings.”

Algiers, which has been the' great French centre in the Mediterranean after the fall of France, went wild with excitement tonight, according to Algiers radio. People danced and embraced each other in the streets. The city was given over to a great night of celebration; thousands milled in the streets, and the city disappeared under a sea of Allied flags. A salvo of 100 guns was fired during the evening and every church bell throughout Algeria pealed-for 20 minutes.

Algiers radio broadcast the. following proclamation :—“The Republic salutes the dead and the martyrs of Paris, as well as the soldiers of the Allied and French armies who h-ve fallen in five years of battle. . . . Paris —risen to join in- the war effort —stands in the vnngunra of the ultimate battle for liberation and heralds victory. Bv their sufferings and immeasurable sacrifices the people of Paris will have opened the road to new progress and new hopes. Vive Paris. Vive la liberte! Vive la Republique!

A special half-hour peal is to be rung from St. Paul’s Cathedral tomorrow afternoon to mark the liberation of Parts. The hells of the Town Hall and church bells in Manchester began ringing within half an hour of the announcement of the liberation. French flags appeared on London buildings this afternoon.