Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 1940. PARIS IN ENEMY HANDS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 168, 15 June 1940, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 1940. PARIS IN ENEMY HANDS.

Wisely the Allied High Command left the way into Paris open to the Nazis. The thrust to the French capital which commenced on June 5 developed its maximum intensity during the middle-.of this week, when it was seen that Paris might not be saved. With the strength of superior numbers and mechanised instruments of war, the great German offensive gradually hurled the brave defenders of French soil back, but heroically they contested every foot of ground, inflicting enormous losses upon the invaders. Hitler, indeed, has paid a tremendous price for the success he has achieved, for the Nazis are to-day in the great French capital. There has been a fanatical disregard among' the soldiers of this present-day Germany, of their lives, entering' battles as they have done in close formation, but Hitler cares little for losses of human beings; they are the instruments to make his dominion more and more extensive. Had General Weygand decided that Paris ' must be defended these losses must have been tremendously greater, for the city has natural defences which would severely test an army. The Bright Command, however,, knowing that in the general strategical and military sense Paris is not an extremely important point, very wisely decided that it should not be razed to the ground and its great treasure in. buildings destroyed. In this respect the Nazis have been deprived of something to cheer their hearts for they are the world’s supreme despoilers of' the most beautiful that Nature or man can construct. Certainly, too,' it would be everyone’s wish in the Allied and neutral countries that such a beautiful city which lias given its culture to ennobling the world should be spared from bombardment. “We have still France,” General,Clianzy said in the Fran-co-Prussian War of 1870 when he heard that Paris liad capitulated to the Germans even though he himself had to submit a little later because of , the people’s apathy. That is the spirit of France to-day, with the Germans for the second time in one hundred years in occupation of the capital so dear to the heart of every Frenchman. With its fall imminent the French Government and administration departments left the city some days ago, and many thousands of people were evacuated. For the time being the Germans have wona big victory which they are quick to observe at Hitler’s dictation. But the battle still goes on, and there is no evidence to believe that the French are . not sternly resisting the invaders. German propaganda is seen in the statement that their line has broken down, which the French War Office spokesman .has. quickly denied. Both countries are united to win the victory which, the British Government has. told

the French people in a heartening message, may come sooner than we have now the right to expect. M. Reynaud’s touching appeal to President Roosevelt has stirred the Democratic world. It has also made Hitler launch another attack, this time a frontal blow at the Maginot Line, so that he can subjugate France. He is desperately anxious to strike so that France may not recover from the loss of Paris, but the two Allies are united in the cause of freedom to which the United States is sending vast armaments. All the huge resources of the two countries are opposed to Hitlerism, and though the hour be now dark the dawn of liberation will come when Paris will be freed from the toils of Nazism.