FRANCE OF TO-DAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23850, 28 December 1940, Page 10

FRANCE OF TO-DAY

THE INVADERS RAITED GERMAN MORALE SUFFERS "NO FRATERNISING" ORDER [from A special connrcsro\pknt] LONDON". Dei-. 1 French morale is improving, neon-fl-ing to reports which roach London Irom Paris. There is a general recline that, the present- situation is an artificial one which cannot last. Hopes are pinned mainly on the British, and Gemial de Gaulle is popular, although not so popular as he would he had he been older and better known during the war in France. He is admired mainly as an intrepid leader and a man without a, political record and with a soldier s mind. The Parisians have now lost their fear, based mainly on a formidable appearance of the German troops, and find them incredibly stupid and ingenuous. Bv "ragging" them in ways too subtle for the German mind, the population have done a goorj deal to undermine German morale. Thus Parisians will commiserate gently with them on their forthcoming trials "when the invasion starts," and say how much they will look back to their stay in France, "which is so peaceful." The adventure against England is not a popular subject of conversation, ior the French are not slow to point to British resistance so far, "with more and worse to come if you try to got there." Circumstantial stories circulate to the effect that two unsiicceSsl ul attempts at invasion have already been made, perhaps as a kind ot rehearsal or as a strong test raid. These, people whisper to one another, ended in disaster, because the German ships ran into a minefield and before they could extricate themselves fast British motorboats drew alongside and pumped petrol aboard and on the sea, and later set light to it. The French hospitals are said to be full of the charred victims and also of German soldiers wounded in the Channel ports by British naval and air attacks. Fears created by such stories are said to be leading to the continual necessity for superior officers to deny them and call the men to order and a martial bearing and "no fraternising." Hence, in public, the attitude of courtesy at first preserved has been dropped and German behaviour in France is now exactly what it was in Belgium during the last war. It is believed that many of the German refugees to France make the Royal Air Force bombing an excuse for coming because they are tired of the Nazi regime and mean to settle down permanently on one pretext or another if the Gestapo allows them to do so. They are, therefore, trying to establish business connections and to buy houses and other property—at prices which, in view of the artificial rate of exchange, are far below the real value.