CRITICAL DAYS IN PARIS

Southland Times, Issue 23648, 25 October 1938, Page 15

CRITICAL DAYS IN PARIS

TERROR BROUGHT BY CRISIS WELLINGTON WOMAN’S VIVID STORY A recent article written in London at the end of September, described the atmosphere of London immediately before the passing of the Czechoslovakian crisis (states The Evening Post, Wellington). Here is a picture, of a more personal kind, of the critical week in Paris, extracted from a letter written by a Wellington woman to her husband. “Needless to tell you what kind of a time we lived through in Paris, starting from about September 23 and lasting till September 29. I shall never forget it, and now when peace is assured, at least for. the time being, it is so hard to believe it to be true. It is like a miracle, it was so very dramatic at the end. On September 27 we all felt that we had at least three days of peace until the first of October, and then all of a sudden a horrible but real nightmare came, and by 2 o’clock on September 28 war was to start and we expected Paris to be bombed after 2 o’clock in the afternoon. called me early on Wednesday morning in the hospital to tell me how bad the news was and that I was to get ready at once, because we were leaving Paris for her father’s country home, which is further south and a perfectly safe place. The hospital, too, was being evacuated, because it is a very exposed building,, and would be a prey to bombs. All the patients were being removed, the nurses were rushing like crazy things, but did not know where they were being moved to. After being in bed for a week, I had to jump out of it in a great hurry and pack and take a taxi to the hotel, where the rest of the luggage was. By then it was already difficult to get trains and taxis, because all Paris tried to leave, and to watch the streets for a few minutes was to feel about a thousand years old. “I shall never forget the horror of it The atmosphere was beyond description, the despair—the hopelessness of a nation which felt it had only a few hours more to Uve. I had my passport in my handbag and prepare'd a notice whom to notify in case my body was found. Meanwhile, there was much to do. Mme X came back that day to say goodbye to her brothers who were mobilized. In X’s home it was very interesting that day—to sit and listen to X speaking on the telephone almost without a stop to the biggest people and leaders in France. About six ’phones were going at one time—it was dramatic! and N., in his office winding up the finishing touch of things, expecting every minute instructions from New York what to do about the Paris office, to close, or to move to the country. It is getting nearer, nearer to 2 o’clock; X saying something will happen in Paris today (meaning bombs), and hurrying us to be off—two cars waiting, one full of luggage, the other for us. Then they all had to rush off somewhere; left me and a young cousin of theirs at home—’phone rings—blessed voice of our son. ‘Mother, situation a little better.’ The cousin and I take a little walk and sit opposite the Bois. That half-hour will always be in my memory. Paris is usually calm, unhurried; but the difference, the frantic expression on all faces, the mad rush of the traffic, packed cars with luggage, the hurry and scurry, the atmosphere laden with despair. We went back home, and by then the glad news of the conference in Munich of the ‘Big Four.’ On the night of September 29, X telephones that all is well and peace as-

sured. It is all a miracle. The everlasting light that Daladier lit on the Arc de Triomphe was a marvellous sight. To look at people now is very pleasant; you even see smiles again, but the nightmare is still quite fresh and the nerves of many are very shattered. Ten thousand Americans flew from Paris. I would have liked to go to New York, but it was impossible to get accommodation. I am very tired from it all, and the reaction is very natural, but I am alive, and the world breathes freely again. I can’t write more now, I can’t think of anything just now after going through a week like the last.”