ACTION BY FRENCH GOVERNMENT AGAINST COMMUNISTS ON CHARGES OF MILITARY ESPIONAGE

Grey River Argus, 28 February 1949, Page 5

ACTION BY FRENCH GOVERNMENT AGAINST COMMUNISTS ON CHARGES OF MILITARY ESPIONAGE

RAIDS ON NEWSPAPERS AND TALK OF INVASION

(Bee. 9.15) PARIS. February 27., Four alleged French Communist sympathisers have been arrested by the police and were' charged with disclosing military secrets. The accused were handed over to the military authorities. Eleven other men have been arrested on similar charges. They were released, but they will be kept under police surveillance.

The four men arrested are: —Robert Friedland, a reporter on a Leftist weekly newspaper “Regards”; Pierre Juin, editor-in-chief of “Regards”; Robert Penniaut, general manager of the paper “France Dabord”; and Bertrand Jouenne, a designer in the drafting office of the nationalised French aircraft construction works. The men must be tried by a military tribunal and the charges must be heard in public. On Friday Paris police raided the buildings of three .French Communist publications and the home of Communist trade unionists. A man whose home was raided was an official of the Communist-led Trade Union Federation. His name has not been disclosed. Three police inspectors called at his office to escort him home, so that he could be present at their search.

The publications raided were: (1) “Regards,” an illustrated weekly; (2) “France Dabord,” a weekly paper specialising in military subjects; and (3) "Editions Sociales,” a publishing house dealing mainly in letflets and pamphlets for the Communist Party and para-Communist organisations. The headquarters of the French National Police would not comment on the raids, but the influential evening newspaper “Le Monde” stated that the operations, which were conducted by a special section of the Na. tional Vigilance Section, began last night and went on to-day. The main operation was against “Regards” the editor-in-chief of which, Pierre Juin, was summoned to the Surete Headquarters for questioning. ® “Le Monde” stated: “Many documents were seized at the weekly’s office, and also at the homes of some of the staff, 'together with the layout and copy of articles for the next number.”

The Communist newspaper “Ce Soir” stated that one of "Regards” editorial staff, M. Jacques Friedland, was preparing an article “'against war’’ when he was apprehended by the police. Political observers believe that this article might be connected with the declaration by M. Thorez on _ what the French workers would do in the event of war between Russia and the Western Powers. Later police raided the homes of two members of the staff of ‘‘Etudes Sovietiques,” a monthly publication devoted to studies of Soviet life. Both were taken to the Surete headquarters. The French Government is considering legal action against all eightyfour members of the French Communist Party’s Politbureau. The police were questioning onj Friday night six French Communists arrested in raids in which thousands of documents and photographs were seized from the offices of the three Communist weeklies, states Reuter’s correspondent. The Public Prosecutor has request- 1 ed the waiving of Parliamentary immunity of Fiorimond Bonte, official French Communist spokesman. A Ministrv of the Interior communique states that for some time the Ministry has been investigating certain persons interested in French national defence. M. Jacques Friedland, one of those arrested as he was leaving the Communist headquarters carried documents “relating to national defence.” . The Communist Trades Union Federation has protested against the raids. It threatened "mass action” if. the Government “laid hands” on the) Communist leaders. The French Minister of War (M. Ramadier) has taken legal action against the Central Committee of the French Communist Party for allegedly inciting the Armv to revolt A high Government source states that M. Ramadier’s complaint was based on statements on wall posters and in the Communist daily “L’Humamte, during tlie mine strike last autumn. M Ramadier’s complaint was sent to the Minister of Justice (M. Robert Lecourt). He will hand it over to the public prosecutors, whose job will then be to start proceedings against members of the central committee who are not deputies. Parliament debated the lifting of

the immunity of M. Marcel Cachin, editor-in-chief of “L’Humanite.” Requests for lifting the immunity of the Communist secretary-general (M. Maurice Thorez) and other Communist deputies now shielded trom arrest, are expected to follow. The Government’s action against the Central Committee of the Communist Party follows M. Thorez's speech in Parliament, in which he said that the people should welcome the Soviet Army if it ever reached France.

FRENCH FEAR OF INVASION .... The French Prime Minister (Dr. Queuille), in an interview with the correspondent of the British United Press in Paris, said that the United States must never allow France and Western Europe to be overrun by Russia as they were’ by Germany. The United States was the only Power capable of forestalling such a catastrophe. Dr. Queuille said he did not doubt that the United States would again come to France’s aid, even without a written treaty, “but that is not tne question. France and the rest of Western Europe must be spared invasion.”

"If, as M. Thorez envisaged in his declarations, the Russians should cross the Rhine, the catastrophe would be all but complete. Communist saboteurs and fifth columnists would seize control of the mechanism of government and the mass of the civilian population would be immobilised by fear of self destruction. "We know that once Western Europe were so occupied America would again come to our aid, and eventually we would be liberated, but the process would be terrible. The next time you probably would be liberating a corpse and civilisation would probably be dead.” The invasion must be stopped before it could get started. If sufficient force could be counted on to prevent the Russian army from moving beyond the Elbe, European civilisation could breathe again. “The real frontier of Western Europe, which must be defended, must be moved well beyond the reach of the actual frontiers, because once the geographical frontiers of these countries are crossed it will be too late for America to save very much,” he said. “Fifteen days after the inyasion it would be too late ’* The correspondent states that Dr. Queuille would not commit himself on whether this means that France was seeking the creation and maintenance of an international force well within Germany while a guarantee against Russian invasion was necessary. KRAVCHENKO'S WITNESSES A French Government spokesman said that witnesses giving evidence in the Kravchenko libel suit had juridical immunity. He was referring to three Russians who testified on behalf of Kravchenko and who Moscow had demanded should be turned over to Russia as “war criminals.” The spokesman said the Russian Note containing the demand was being studied, but had not yet been answered. QUESTION OF ATTACK BY SOVIET WASHINGTON, Feb. 25. Senator Robert. Taft (Republican, Ohio) said he believed that if tne United States rearms Europe particularly Norway, it “is more likely to lead to a new military attack by Russia” than to world peace. The programme now being dratted is expected to call for an outlay of between 1,000,000,000 and 2,000,000,000 dollars for arms for Western El Senator Taft made the statement as the representatives of seven Western Powers Diet at the State Depar ment for the final phase of the North Atlantic Security Pact negotiations. He said he was not necessarily going to oppose the arms programme, but would reserve his judgment until the programme was formulated.