FRANCE BLED WHITE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 227, 23 August 1940, Page 7

FRANCE BLED WHITE.

UNDER NAZI YOKE. PARIS AN ARMED CAMP. LONDON, Aug. 22. The Lisbon correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says that according to a neutral diplomat who has arrived from Paris that city is now an armed camp and the principal base lor Hitler’s projected assault against Britain. The Germans are maintaining strict secrecy to prevent the slightest detail of their preparations from leaking out, and this is illustrated by their refusal to give visas to prominent Americans seeking to leave Paris for SwitThe diplomat described life in Paris as unpleasant. There was gunfire in the suburbs every night, he said, and the food situation was becoming worse daily. He added: “My general impression gained from conversations with French Government officials is that they realise that Britain alone can save France. The Germans are exercising the greatest pressure on Vichy, and Frenchmen are not allowed to leave the country without special authority from the Armistice Commission. Marshal Petain is trying to maintain the prestige of the Vichy Government, but M. Laval’s stocks seem to have fallen since lie went to Paris to see the German Ambassador.” The Lisbon correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain says refugees reaching Lisbon describe France as being slowly bled white under the German occupation. The stores and warehouses are emptying as fast as conveyances can be found to haul their contents to Germany. France two months ago had food sufficient to last till the end of this year, but she is now feeling the pinch of hunger. ■' ... A former member of the Argentine Embassy said: “The French are still dazed, as if someone had hit them on the head with a club. They are meek and unprotesting, like sheep.”