FRANCE IS GRIMLY RESOLVED TO "FINISH IT"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23507, 18 November 1939, Page 1 (Supplement)

FRANCE IS GRIMLY RESOLVED TO "FINISH IT"

TOURING 11 clays spent in France I have been impressed by the quiet resolution everywhere apparent. It appears to me a full counterpart, in harmony with the special characteristics of this gallant and practical people, of the spirit I had previously observed in England. During all those days 1 did not see a single flag waved, or witness a single public demonstration. \et in a thousand tangible and intangible ways the unity of purpose and determination of the entire population are evident. Of the pacific disposition of the French there can be no doubt. To the depths of their hearts, they who knew the war so, closely 25 years ago love and desire peace. But equally unmistakably they feel that this war, which they did nothing to invite, must be carried through, no matter what the cost. Courageous Widow Everywhere the phrase is "11 faut en finir." j\lri Chamberlain endeared himself doubly to them when in that speech to Parliament he selected this phrase—the French people s own expression of their understanding of the present situation —to represent what was also Britain's attitude. In Paris and in crowded smaller cities, in villages, on trains and among soldiers bound for the front, 1 heard this view spontaneously reiterated. Many times J was told, "We asked nothing, we just wanted to live quietly. Others were the aggressors. Now, il faut en finir." Jn Rouen, a mother widowed in the last war, who had just seen her only son off to join the forces, told me, "We do not like this, but it has to bo done. Life was not worth living anymore anvhow, with this terrible injustice threatening the world. It was impossible to plan ahead, to do anything without the thought that it might be interrupted. Peace is worth preserving, even at the price of war." "Everything We Hold Sacred" Frequently in chatting with older men leaving for the front ] heard remarks of this tenor: "11 faut en finir. Last time we tried to make peace forever. It lasted 25 years. This time we'll try for peace for 50 years. At least, we must keep our sons from having to go through this again." The younger men said, "Our fathers tried to prevent this happening again and now we have the job anyhow. But this time we will not stop until we are certain that our own sons will not have to fight." All through France 1 found Frenchwomen playing their part with fortitude. They were running their shops in their husbands' absence, making the necessary readjustments in their homes and ways of living with the avowed purpose of keeping French life as normal and cheerful as possible. "It is our job to sustain our men by our own willingness to carry on," they told me. "They' have the harder role, but we want* to help. This is a war for everything we hold sacred, including our homes and our religion." Frenchwomen are comporting themselves with efficiency as tramway conductors, chauffeurs and in many un-

Glimpses Into the Soul of a People By PAULA LE CLER, a Special Paris Correspondent

accustomed posts. M. Dautry, French Minister of Armaments, with whom I .spoke soon after liis return with M. Daladier from the meeting of the Supreme War Council 111 England, told me of the skill and excellent morale of the women engaged in the munitions industries, and of how women of all classes are thronging to offer their services. City Without Children

The authorities in more than one city told me tliev could not get the women into the shelters during the air alarms. "We had six warnings," one official said, "but the women do not want to hide themselves. They will not move. They feel that this is nothing new to them; the Germans cannot frighten them this way. We were much bombarded here in the last war. and then we had no alarms and air defences as we have now. French women have all accepted this war with pluck. One sees no scenes of deep despair as in the- last war." At first 1 walked about the streets of Paris and other cities and wondered what had changed. Taxis and traffic were moving as usual. People were going about their business and shopping. Buildings and monuments were sandbagged, windows criss-crossed; occasionally detachments of the armed forces passed. But on the whole everything seemed almost the same. Yet there was the sense of great change. Suddenly I realised, "There arc no children here any more."

A city without children is an extraordinary thing. In the Luxembourg Gardens the little voices, the laughter and the prams are missing, as elsewhere. As if to compensate for - this luck the boys in their teens are coining into new evidence. In their neat Scout uniforms they assist in the Department of Information and other Government departments. One finds them busy in stations and wherever small official services are needed. Spiritual Values Behind this practical performance and curious cpiietiidc of attitude lies the deep veneration of the French people for their soil, violated in the last war, and for their traditions of liberty and independence. In spite of the absence of slogans and cheering, their fundamental spiritual and emotional reservoirs are brimmed and overflowing. In any .extended conversation the point of moral motive is sure to arise.

"More than any war in history, this is a war of civilisation against the forces of barbarism." I was told. "It is a religious war in the most real and profound sense, a war against godlcssness and destruction."

M. Fiehclle —who as Director of the French Institute, in Prague up to the moment'of German violation, learned to know Nazi aims and psychology, and who is now active in Paris—told me: "In the very, stones of France there resides the spirit of a psychological and moral past and tradition, a 'patronvm moral,' which never existed at Nuremberg. I walked the other night by the Cathedral. I am a Frenchman. I like to walk by moonlight. Beneath my feet was the soil of France, imbued with her passion for individual liberty. Above me was the sky of France, to which for centuries her aspirations and her devotion to spiritual values have risen. "That wan all. For us it is everything."