PLIGHT OF FRANCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25105, 19 January 1945, Page 5

PLIGHT OF FRANCE

FOOD AND FUEL SCARCE SNOW ADDS TO SUFFERING (Herd. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 18 The snow-bound condition of a great part of France is beginning to have an effect little less than disastrous on supplies reaching the capital, says the Paris correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. Shortages of fuel and food are now acute. The Paris gasworks have enough coal only for two more days' supply. Electric-power stations have been rationed to one-eighth of their normal requirements. Insufficient Bread Bread supplies yesterday were again insufficient to satisfy all holding ration cards. No butter or fat has been distributed this month. Meat supplies are irregular. Milk for children arrives frozen many hours late. No coal has yet been distributed, and wood is unobtainable except at enormous prices. One-half of the available wood is requisitioned for public distribution, and some is being used for heating public rooms provided to enable people to spend half an hour regaining warmth. Underground stations are filled • with middle-aged people taking refuge from the cold, occasionally taking a train journey to break the monotony. Rehabilitation Efforts

General de Gaulle, speaking on the rehabilitation of France, said that, following the vast reconstruction of disorganised collieries. French miners were now extracting 600,000 tons of coal a week, of which one-third was required for military needs. Most of the dams and turbines from which hvdraulic electric power is produced had tieen repaired, but the winter had not permitted their full utilisation. The French Government before the Battle of France foresaw the present almost total lack of raw material and established an imports plan intended for the first few months after liberation. But fantastic uuder-estimntion of the German capacity for resistance, plus the pressing necessity of supplying the battlefronts, overwhelming demands on maritime transport and the destruction of ports, had delayed the execution of the Allied plan, which only now was beginning to produce results. Great Difficulties

France was recovering but was still up against great difficulties, General de Gaulle added. Food rations were low. There was barely enough milk for babies and invalids and many homes and workplaces had no heating. He welcomed an agreement with the Allies to increase French imports. Transport was difficult. Before the war France had 16,000 locomotives, but now she had only 6000. Victory and national revival demanded a heavy price, but their attainment would compensate for everything. General de Gaulle said that a new French army, whose equipment was assured, was being formed lor the decisive clashes of next spring and summer. The British Foreign Office has announced that the British and American Governments have found it possible, subject to military necessity, to allocate the French Provisional Government a number of ships for the first three months of 1945. This will enable France to meet some of her import requirements. CAIRO MURDERERS SENTENCED TO DEATH CRcml. 11.10 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 18 The two men charged in Cairo with the assassination of Lord Moyne were today sentenced to death.