MAGINOT LINE PLEA

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 April 1940, Page 11

MAGINOT LINE PLEA

“THE UNDERGROUND BOYS.” MELBOURNE, April 3. The “underground boys” of the Maginot Line have written to the Victoria Racing Club, thanking it for a substantial gift, and asking the Australian women to write to them. The letter is:— “Maginot Line, Feb. 18, 1940. Dear Sir,— “I have learned by the ‘Paris-Soir’ of the interest taken by your club in French soldiers who, in company with their English friends, and with you, our distant ones, are struggling for the world’s liberty that the sinister Hitler is trying to steal from us. We are in the Maginot Line, in the depths of the earth, where we live without seeing the sun in these formidable subterranean cities for the last six months. ' . .

“You-will easily understand,* monsieur, the ennui, the cafard, as it is termed in our country, which is felt by us who were formerly acustomed to the exhilarating life of Paris. It is to lessen it that we have founded this club of the underground boys, and it is by virtue of my secretaryship that I dare to write you this letter. “I have hoped.that perhaps you will be able to find for.us some marrianes among your charming Australian ladies. We would be happy and flattered if some Australian ladies would Ire good enough to correspond with us, and if, by their moral aid, they would help us while awaiting the hour of victory. < “In the hope, monsieur, that the Victoria Racing Club will be able to give a favourable answer to this request I beg you to accept the expression of my__kindest regards. “Jacques Brault, Cannonier, Ouvrage, M.,Secteur, Postal 390, Fran'ceJ’

A marriane, in the sense in'which it is' used in the letter, is something akin to a godmother.