WOMEN IN THE PARIS COMMUNE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5651, 27 December 1879, Page 7

WOMEN IN THE PARIS COMMUNE.

A. proclamation", signed " A Group of Woman," having on the 3rd of May demanded au armistice, it was answered three; days later by a mail.feit.) of the " Central Union Committee of Women " with au indignant protest disclaiming all "conciliating between liberty and despotism, between the people and its ass ivsins," and demanding "la ijtterre a out em ic." This was allied by the citei/eiiiins L-mel. Jaequicr, Leluvre, Lelotip and Donitri' f, who, as .\l. Simon n tea, did uot coiiline tii'inselvea to lofty proclamations. 'L'hey placed in line a few days later a battalion of 2,500 women, well armed and equipped, wlm were commanded by men, and were reviewed May 14th in the courtyard of the 'L'uileries by two general officers and a delegate of the Commune. Tliey received, like other soldiers, one and a half fracs per diem, besides their food. Their warlike exploits never ligures in history, but some isolated women, attached as cctnliniercii to the ivgular companies or who joined those companies in male attire, really " displayed courage in battle, a persistence which few men could equal, and a forocity which rendered their war notably sanguinary. Many were found behind the barricades. Others undertook to bedew houses with petroleum The poor, nuhappy women, who cried out for conciliation and demanded peace with tearp, lnil terrible neighbours of their own skk."—J!th!d Simon.