MADAME TABOUIS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 14, 17 July 1939, Page 9

MADAME TABOUIS

LIFE OF HARD WORK

SECRET NEWS ORGANISATION

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London

Representative.)

LONDON, June 8

Hitler's only hope of salvation lay in the contemplation of a policy of peaceful absorption of States which would bring him the matei-ials he was unable to obtain through lack of currency and on which the morale of his people depended. He could only be saved if the democracies were still willing to allow him to blackmail them. Until Finance, Britain, and Russia signed a pact of mutual assistance the peace coalition would be inoperative. These views were expressed by Madame Tabouis, the famous French political journalist, at a Foyle literary luncheon.

She mentioned the possibility of Franco's army invading France, of the Bulgarians attacking Greece, and even of Finland becoming antagonistic to Russia. She also announced that Hitler was unpopular, that there were strikes of housewives in Vienna and riots in German factoxies. and that the mark would lose 90 per cent, of its value if Germany started to disarm. She added that Germans had little or no fruit or vegetables, and subsisted on stale potatoes and cod fish, with jam tarts only twice a week.

Madame Tabouis has found recently that she has had to alter her methods of obtaining news. At one time she used to telephone daily important politicians all over Europe and piece together their admissions and denials. Her technique is now different. "People do not like to say much oh the telephone now," she said. "So I organise myself differently. How? Ah, that is my secret. But I have my men everywhere. We have our secret codes. . . ."

Madame Tabouis begins work daily at 7.30 a.m. She has three secretaries and her post averages 50 to 60 letters a day. Her husband is head of a radio organisation.

Asked if the constant strain of her work affected her health, Madame Tabouis replied: "Yes, I have been frequently and seriously ill. I eat practically nothing, and have been on a strict diet for the past 20 years, mostly fresh fruit and vegetables. I cannot touch meat or potatoes, and I drink weak tea.

"I have no games. I take no exer- v cisc and never walk. I hate the theatre, but two or three times a week ; I go to the cinema from midnight until 2 a.m.—we have special late houses in Paris. I prefer this because one has only to concentrate on one thing and in the dark it is easier to relax. I prefer love stories and crime films. I have also three white Angora Persian cats in my flat and 1 like their society, especially when working.

"I have had several threats to my life, of course, and I know, for one, that the Gestapo would be happier if, say, an unfortunate accident befell me. I have, therefore, a bodyguard of two policemen always with me."