NOTES FROM PARIS

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 April 1933, Page 8

NOTES FROM PARIS

THE FOREIGN LEGION PARIS, February 4. There is a romantic story behind the foundation in Paris of an organisation which is called “The Association of Friends of the Foreign Legion?’ Marshals Petain, Lyautey and Fran-, chet d’Esperey have agreed to become its honorary presidents, but the man to whom its creation is really due is Mr. Philippe Ortiz, an American citizen living here. • A year ago Mr. Ortiz learned that: his son , a youth of IS, who was sup-‘-posed to be studying in the provinces, had slipped away to Algeria and joined the Legion under an assumed name Instead of faking steps, as he might have done , to secure his son’s liberation On the ground that he was not of age, Mr. Ortiz determined to see for himself what this notorious fighting force was really like. He spent first March and then June and July among the legionaries in Sidi-el-Abbes and in the desert posts. His conclusion was that the Foreign Legion is one of the finest bodies of men under discipline in the world, and he therefore decided to found an association which would defend its reputation in the United States and elsewhere.

RETREAT FROM THE MASSIVE Auctioneers and furniture dealers in Paris have recently found that it is becoming increasingly difficult to sell anything designed on massive lines. The demand at present is for small furniture which can be comfortably fitted into tiny flats. Parisians can no longer find room .for big sideboards, tables and bookcases. Examples are to be found every day at the Hotel Drouet, the principal auction-room in Paris. Only yesterday a magnificent mahogany bookcase in Empire style was knocked down for only a little over £.3. while a much smaller one , in plain oak, brought nearly double the price. ' The reason was that dealers who had ' measured the larger bookcase had decided that it would be difficult to dispose of, on account of its dimensions. Norman wardrobes, once so eagerly bought at from £8 to £lO each, are now to be had in the salerooms for about £3, simply because they are too big. The same thing applies to second-hand grand pianos. AN UNUSUAL, MUSEUM Students of religion, in modern, times should be able to find valuamle Information about at least one aspect of their subject in a very unusual I kind of museum which has been opened within a stone’s throw of St. Sulpice Church. In this quarter, which has such an important place in Anatole France’s book about the revolt of the angels, an exhibition of objects illustrating the extravagances of contemporary atheists has been arranged. Naturally , most of the material comes from Russia. Lurid “anti-god” posters adorn the walls, while there are working models of fearful-looking personages who, are supposed to be bourgeois ogres. Their teeth arc in the form of cannon, and apparently they are intended to discredit any deity in whom, a capitalist might believe. It is a rather terrible collection to bring within the religious precincts of St. Sulpice, but its object is said to be to arouse the indignation of true believers.

Warder Kept Busy: There is at Mortagne a chief warder who has rather a strenuous time.

He is chief warder because he is the only one. He is in sole charge of a gaol in -which there are twenty-three •'jirfsohers—eighteen rrieiii find five women. Early each morning this official has to go' out shopping to secure food for his 'Charges. . Before leaving he assigns tp each one his.-duty for the day,’'and then has, more or less, to rely upon their good behaviour until he returns. ■ " - The majority of his guests are old offenders, and it is recorded that his most effective means of keeping them in order is to remind them from time to time that, while they are being well Ted arid kept warm, there hre thousands of people outside who, : suffering- from cold arid hunger; would be happy to change places w.ith them. ■ Sb tactfully, and at tlieririaine time so - firmly . does he handle' his flock that no trouble ever o'ccurs. Every morning he locks up his establishment, goes about/ his business, and finds everything as it should be when he returns. Mgr. Gontray’s Trying Task:

It might have been thought that if there was one place in. the world where a bishp- was neede'd; it was french Guiana, with a.t'S? colony of 4,,5Q(L deported convicts. Yet at the present moment a. single' Roman Catholic chaplain is responsible for the sph-ftual welfare of these unhappy meri. ~

This gap, however, is now to be . filled. It has been decided to appoint Bishop of Guiana, a man who has spent thirteen years as a missionary in Reunion, the beautiful . French island in the Indian Ocean, and in the French'-'Congo-'colony of Gabon. He is Mgr. Gon tray. Returning to France only a tew days ago, he was informed of his new appointment ’when he reached Marseilles. Oh arriving in Paris he at. once -set- to work to study evcry- . thing that.' has been written about Cayenne, from official reports to the brilliant, book of Albert Londres, the .journalist who investigated conditions in the colony as no other modern man has done, and who was one of the vic tims of the fire on the French liner Georges Philippar. Mgr. Gontray has no illusions about the task before him. Almost singlehanded he will be in charge of a large diocese where the climate is terrible and means of communication are- ’ confined almost entirely to canoes travelling on the rivers. He has already received many appeals from the mothers, wives, and sweethearts of convicts to carry messages of sympathy to the outcasts. High Cost of Dying':

Certain’ persons at Roubaix, one of the great textile towns of the North, have, formed a Committee ,of Economic Action Against the High Cost of Living. The first step taken by this organisation is to protest against, the high cost of dying. , The members declare that the locdT- Municipal Council charge of £BO for a grave of the kifid known as a. “perpetual concession” is thirty times as much as Ihe sum charged immediately after the war.. <if the price is not. immediately reduced, the committee proposes to take legal proceedings against, the Council, Meanwhile it is urging its. members and supporters to bury their dead in cemeteries where interments are less expensive.

Th<v sexton of the Ariierican Church in Paris declares that £BO would not be considered excessive for a permanent grave in many of the cemeteries of the capital. At Pere-Lachaise, which is the resting-place of so many famous num and women it is now necessary to pay not less than .C 150.