FREE BUT HUNGRY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 133, 2 December 1944, Page 10

FREE BUT HUNGRY

FRANCE AND THE NETHERLANDS

(By-Trevor Ross, who represented the Australian Associated Press on a visit by 'plane to Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, Eindhoven, and other places

during the week October 13 to 20.)

One of the ironies of the liberation of both France and Belgium is that the population is worse off for food and many other essential things than they were under the occupation. This state of affairs will not last, but it is causing some bitterness because there is a feeling that enough has not been done to relieve the situation quickly. This is not altogether so. The Allied military control and the Governments in both countries are faced with a formidable job. The paramount problem is transport and telegraphic communications. As one departmental chief put it, the French cut off their nose to spite their face in the weeks before, and the days immediately following, D Day. The Maquis before D Day destroyed or put out of action over 75 per cent, of all the railway bridges in France. Allied bombers increased the percentage considerably. The result was that when the Allies landed in Normandy the railway system of France was almost completely paralysed. It remains so today. Great efforts are being made to restore vital bridges, and the Maquis are now busily repairing what they were once only too anxious to destroy. There is a skeleton service in various parts at the moment. Military supplies are coming through France, but there is no room for food and other supplies for the population. As an example of the present chaos, it takes seven days to travel by rail from Bordeaux to Lille, whereas before it took only one day. The south of France is short of food: but in Normandy there is a glut of almost everything. Further north, Paris is very short, and the people are really feeling the pinch. Further north still it is even worse, and there can be no improvement until the railways can be used Sgain. THE BOMBERS DID IT. Light and power are also very short, almost all over France. The northern coalfields are almost completely idle, because there is a shortage of pit props. These come from the Bordeaux area, and here again they cannot be transported. To the destructive work of the Maquis must be added that of the Allied bombers. We saw the most appalling devastation caused by our bombers. One day we flew from Paris right down the Seine. Twenty-five bridges had been cut or destroyed be- ! tween Paris and Le Havre. There | was scarcely any traffic on the roads, and we did not see one train in a flight of hundreds of miles. Eouen is a pitiable sight, and Le Havre even more so. From Le Havre we flew low to Caen, thence to Falaise, and the battlefield in the area, then to Argenton and back to Paris. The destruction is terrible for hundreds of miles: whole villages and towns have been flattened. One day we motored to Creil, the Clapham Junction of Paris, about 30 miles north of the capital. There we saw just what our bombers do when they set out to close down a vital junction. . . Not a carriage could move in the huge marshalling yards, and the station area itself was completely wrecked. This was" the only such place we saw on the ground, but our pilot flew us low over perhaps a dozen big marshalling yards, and the destruction must be seen to be believed. We in England have never experienced anything like it. The de Gaulle' Government, then, is applying itself to these immediate problems, and we were assured by his spokesman that it was eschewing politics completely. The Government has the backing of the people at the moment, but de Gaulle remains something \ of an enigma to them. They say— and I ■ spoke to many on this point— that he was certainly the symbol of ! Resistance. But they are in the dark 1 about his future policy. He certainly has not unanimous support, as will be j shown. De Gaulle has promised a General Election as soon as it is practicable. But Andre Leguerre, Undersecretary to the Minister of Information, told us that it would be at least i a year before it could be held. There was no intention of holding one until the three million deportees and war prisoners had returned. And it would need several months after that to enable them to find their political feet at home again. There has been no election in France since 1936. At the next election women will have a vote j for the first time. This will be a most important factor, and there is great activity among all political groups at the moment to woo the women's vote. Meantime, while de Gaulle's Government applies itself to what it calls the "material" problems, there has been a resurgence of old political parties and the creation of new ones. There is every sign that by the time the election is held there will be as much political confusion in France as there ever was. I attended one afternoon a big meeting called by the supporters of nine resistance underground newspapers. They formed themselves into a political party, the National Liberation Movement. It is Liberal Socialist and may be powerful before long. The women of France were prominent in the Resistance and they will be strong in this new party. Speeches at the meeting were reasonably moderate. The party appeals to youth particularly and demands that the dead wood of the old political system be cut out. Indeed, the predominance of youth was most marked everywhere: de Gaulle's Cabinet is composed of young men. I was .particularly impressed with the Minister of Information, Tietgen, with whom we had a long talk. He is young and very able, and is surrounded by young men. TREND TOWARDS THE LEFT. As far as can be seen at the moment, the great political trend is towards the Left. The Popular Democrat Party has risen again, representing the extreme Right, but in the French scheme of things it represents merely moderate conservative opinion. It is a small party but very active, and many believe it may yet gain many adherents. The C.G.T. (Confederation General dp Travail), coresponding to the British T.U.C., has resumed political operations. It is the left wing of the Socialist Party, and stands between the Communists and the Socialist Right. There is every sign that it will be highly militant and it is close knit, well organised, and embraces some powerful unions. But I think there may be a danger in the infusion of youth. It is in some places being carried to extremes. The Maquis were nearly all young men who developed a brigand way of living and thinking, and they are going to present France with many difficulties. They strut about various parts

of France with their rifles or Sten guns over their shoulders with an air "Who dares to take this from me?" They are really powerful in the south. Their attitude is that having liberated a district, they are entitled to control it. They have, indeed, set up their own administrations in several places, and. declare they owe allegiance to nobody, and certainly not to the Paris Government. The Communists are today probably stronger in France than they have ever been. It must not be forgotten that they were the backbone of the Resistance, and they are intent on preserving their new power. DISTRESSING IGNORANCE. The charge levelled against the emigre Governments which have now returned is that they are»out of touch with national sentiment because of their absence during the occupation. This is so to a degree, but more so in Belgium, because there was more contact between France and England during the occupation than between Belgium and England. Moreover, de Gaulle's Cabinet includes several men who were active in the Resistance inside France, including Tietgen who was one of its leaders. On the other hand it was distressing to find that both countries were about four years put of date in their political knowledge of the world outside. I had no time for much political discussion in Belgium, but spent many hours in France talking with people who had been all through the occupation. Some friends arranged a meeting at their house one evening, and about fifteen of their friends and neighbours arrived to ply me with questions. Their hunger for news of the outside world was insatiable. German propaganda had distorted their knowledge very markedly. They were under the impression that the British Empire was falling apart and that Australia and New Zealand had refused to fight England's battles in Europe. They wanted to know when Britain intended to remove her army of occupation from Egypt, and other curious things as well. They confessed that a multiplicity of parties seemed inevitable in France again, and that apart from a desire for peace and the destruction of Germany as a first-class Power, there will be little or no unity in France. I asked whether party was again to become more important to the Frenchman than country, but this was parried several times by statements that France could never be expected to have the clearcut British political system. This, of course, is true, but there is a disturbing wrangling everywhere which could quite easily lead to chaos. France, and Belgium, too, are certainly to suffer many political agonies before anything like stability can be reached. One thing- is very clear, and that is that both countries are today more proBritish than ever they have been. They really do at the moment look to Britain for a lead in almost everything. America, they think, will be too far away after the war. Everyone insisted .that Britain could never again escape from the Continent. She was part of it for ever now, and she would have to take an active part in shaping its destinies. It is quite clear that these countries, and no doubt others, will cling to Britain after the war for guidance and for help. If Britain disappoints them, as she has done in the past, their reactions may be violent. HATRED OF THE HUN. I did find greater realism in many things than one encounters in Britain. This is understandable because these countries have suffered the occupation, as it is universally called. Their hatred of the- German is incredibly fierce. There is no question, as thereis in Britain, of there being "good" and "bad" Germans. They are all monsters due to pay' a terrible price. These countries will never forgive or forget the four humiliating years. Their 1 humiliation was terrible and pathetic. One was constantly asked just how strong Britain was, and whether she intended to remain strong after the war. Again and again the impression was given that a strong Britain was their great hope for the future. The Parisian has made a brave show to conceal his want and his humiliation. Conditions are still bad for all except the Allied soldiers, who, of course, import everything they use down to the last grain of sugar. As a sidelight on the occupation, my friends told me that the husband travelled thousands of miles by cycle in country districts searching for black market food. It was the only way to feed his family of four. Nearly everyone in Paris had contact with a farmer or friend in the country who regularly sent parcels of food. The result was that Paris almost lived on the parcel post. The Germans knew of this traffic but did nothing to stop it. It appears their attitude was that they themselves did not intend to provide transport to supplement Paris's meagre rations, but that if the city liked to clog its postal system and create all j sorts of administrative problems for itself, it \vas at liberty to do so. So thousands of parcels poured into Paris daily, and the postal service almost col- 1 lapsed under the strain. LUXURIES, BUT NO FOOD. | , Yet everywhere there are luxury i goods—at a price. The position is that whereas Britain saw she had all necessary food during the war, and denied herself luxuries, the occupied countries had all the luxuries but insufficient food. Sickness has increased markedly. The people after the occupation were existing in Paris on a daily calorific count of about 950 against the essential 2500. Things are improving slowly, but it will be months before there is enough for everybody. The coal mines in Belgium are nearly all idle because the miners, receiving insufficient food, say they cannot work. Paris is going to endure a hard winter. There will be almost no heating in private homes. Gas for cooking is turned on for two hours each day now instead of one after the liberation, and electric power is available from dusk to dawn, with a couple of hours in the afternoon. While we were there the people had literally no milk, butter, or sugar, and very little meat. Four of five persons would dive for a cigarette butt thrown to the footpath. In Belgium cigarettes are better currency than francs. Most shops will barter goods for cigarettes; for 500 you can buy a £6 watch.