MILITARY SECRETS INVOLVED: ARRESTS IN PARIS

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 February 1949, Page 6

MILITARY SECRETS INVOLVED: ARRESTS IN PARIS

PARIS, February 27.. Four alleged French Communist sympathisers have beqn arrested by the police and charged with disclose ing military secrets. Trie accused have been handed over to the military authorities. Eleven othbr then arrested oh similar charges were released, but . will be kept under police surveillance. < . The four meh arrested are Robert Friedland, a reporter on the Leftist weekly newspaper Regards, Pierid Juin, editor-in-chief of Regards-, Robert Penniaut, general manager of the paper France d’Abord. and Bertrand Jouenhe, a designer in .the French aircraft construction works; The men must be tried by a military tribunal and the charges ririist be heard in public. A communique issued by the Ministry of the Interior says that for some time the Ministry has been investigating certain persons interested in French national defence. Friedland who was arrested, as he was leaving the Communist Party’s headquarters, carried documents “relating to national defence.” The Communist newspaper Cd Soir says that Friedland was preparing an article “against war” when he was apprehended by the police. Political observers believe that this article may be connected with the statement by the Secretary-General of the Communist Party (Mr Maurice Thorez) that French workers would do everything to make war with the Soviet Union not just difficult but impossible. The men were arrested after the police had raided the buildings of three French Communist publications and the homes of Communist trade unionists. The Communist Trades Union Federation has protested against the raids and has threatened “mass action” of the Government “lays hands” on Communist leaders.