INSIDE FRANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24791, 16 December 1941, Page 4

INSIDE FRANCE

Three months,ago the United States press, .which has as good information as any that slips past the Nazi censors,: reported that 20,000 German troops were concentrated in Paris, to deal with sporadic outbursts of violence directed by the French people against their oppressors. By last month it was obvious, from despatches out of Occupied France which would not contain the whole story v that the Nazis were continuing to experience difficulty in controlling the French populace. Meeting violence with violence, General von Stulpnagel, commanding the Army of Occupation, decreed the execution of French hostages in a proportion of fifty to one, as reprisal for the shooting of the Nazi military commander at Nantes, and at Bordeaux, where an army official was assassinated, similar retribution was exacted. The reaction of the Vichy Government to these incredibly brutal and cold-blooded massacres was not heroic. Marshal Petain's only public acknowledgment of the crimes committed against his people was to appealto " Frenchmen," not to their German masters—to " put an end to this butchery. Do not," he begged, "let more evil be done iri France." In recent weeks little has been heard from within France, save rumours of fresh conferences between the Nazis and Vichy delegates on the subject of surrender of the French fleet and German occupation of the French African colonies. But it is not to be supposed that Frenchmen, roused to a cold fury at the infamy of those who affect to be guarding their honour, and stung to action.by the cynical brutality of their real masters, have ceased all resistance.

Indeed, the contrary may be surmised. Even if it is difficult to learn what happens in France, the French people cannot be kept entirely in ignorance of what is occurring abroad, in the two war zones. It will not be beyond their knowledge that in Russia the proud Nazi armies are in retreat, and that in Libya the Axis is being sorely pressed by the British Eighth Army. These developments represent the first breath of liberation to the people of France, and the Nazi troubles in war will "make the Nazi task of keeping the French nation in subjection none the easier. The fact that the Vichy Government has seen fit to make a protest against the German policy of wholesale reprisals' by execution and imprisonment of Frenchmen for every, demonstration against Nazi authority is doubly significant. It affirms, first, the continuance within France of the underground war on the "Third Front," which is being' waged by Frenchmen careless of the consequences. It indicates, secondly, that Vichy has grasped to itself some remnants of the cloak of courage which is the French heritage from the past.