UNREST IN FRANCE

Timaru Herald, Volume CL, Issue 22043, 16 August 1941, Page 5

UNREST IN FRANCE

Police Fire On Crowds By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Rec. 8.30) LONDON, Aug. 14. The unrest in France flared up in the streets of Paris on Wednesday when the police fired on demonstrators at St. Lazare railway station and also broke up another demonstration at Porte St. Denis, one of the ancient gates of Paris. The Madrid correspondent of the “Daily Mail” reports that many were wounded in Paris. The newspapers allege that Communists led the demonstrators. Fighting began at the railway station. Police charged the demonstrators who reformed their ranks an hour later, upon which more shots were fired by the police and arrests made. Porte St. Denis is a busy shopping neighbourhood between the Opera House and the Bastille. Opposition to the Vichy policy is growing throughout France, and trains loaded with troops returning from Syria have been stoned and booed. Admiral Darlan, broadcasting from Vichy to the French land, sea and air forces and to the colonies, appealed for support for Marshal Petain's programme.

"The sacrifice of those members of the three forces who were killed was not in vain,” he declared. “France can now be reborn. The nation’s defeat cannot harm the morale of men whose bravery the enemy recognised at Narvik and Dunkirk, and more recently in Syria. Defeat must not to despair, but to meditation on past faults with a view to averting their repetition. Honour and discipline are Marshal Petain’s guide, and they must also be ours.”