FRENCH AFFAIRS

Grey River Argus, 10 November 1944, Page 7

FRENCH AFFAIRS

LONDON, November 8. A Daily Telegraph correspondent at Faris -says: A wave of criticism alleging slowness in applying the reforms which were expected to follow liberation characterises Paris newspapers. Several morning papers reflect dissatisfaction with the Government, mainly on economic issues. A resistance paper “Combat” charges t'he Government with reactionary tendencies, saying: What is needed is that every member of this first Assembly should put aside personal interests and party.slogans and attempt to recover the language of France.

Another Paris message says: Felix Gouin. who was President of the French Consultative Assembly in Algiers, was re-elected President of the enlarged Assembly to-day. M. Gouin, aged 58, is a prominent Socialist, and was one of Leon Blum’s defenders at the Riom trial. He was among Parliamentarians who voted against Marshal Petain on July 10, 1940. He worked constantly after the armistice for a revival of the Socialist Parly. He escaped from France, going across Spain in 1942. Four Frenchmen were found guilty at a Paris Assize Court on a charge of collaborating with Germans. They, were sentenced to death. Another who joined the anti-Bolshevist Legion, was sentenced to five years’ solitary confinement. !A Military Tribunal in Moreuil sentenced to death a French woman named Declerc. for having delivered French patriots to Germans. A Court at Limoges sentenced to death two brothers, named Laurent and Francois Barbasoche, on similar charges. All were executed on Tuesday.