THE YOKE LIFTING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 201, 23 August 1944, Page 5

THE YOKE LIFTING

REACTIONS OF THE FRENCH BURNING, BITTER HATRED OF THE GERMANS (Special Correspondent—N.Z.P.A.) Reed. 7.20 p.m. London. Aug. 22. With the penetration of the Allied forces into southern France, more is becoming known of the spirit of the French people in their fight against the Nazis and oi the feeling of hatrec which the Germans have left behind. Here are extracts from some of the reports ot war correspondents. Writing from St. Maxine, one states: “The French population soon came down from the as the Germane had cleared the coast of the inhabitants in the last few months. But there was no flower-throwing, m. wine-giving, no kissing, as the French, who had suffered the hells of occupy tion, met their compatriots of th French Army which had just lands For the most part they stood and loo! ed at each other with that awkwari. ness and shyness you expect at ti. reunion of a family which, for year, has been divided against itself and hr. become a family again. I began t. regret I could' find no colour until . realised I was finding truer colour than the crimson of uncorked wine and the yellows and blues of thrown flowers. SO LITTLE TO GIVE. ! “These French had so little to offer. It may be true that the people o. Normandy were never without adequate food, but these people were. These folk often cried out tor bread. A naval officer and I came across a middle-aged Frenchman shot through the feet. He had crawled five miles through the night with the bones in his feet shot through the side. We raced for a French Red Cross ambulance and when we returned the civilians were trying to ease his pain with little gifts. And what do you think those gifts were? Biscuits thrown away by our troops! Halfsmoked cigarettes and lemonade crystals discarded from the American ration. “I drove on to the French troops mustering for an important drive within one hour of their arrival. There was no ‘on to Paris' on their lips. It is: ‘On to Vichy.' X do not like the way they say it.” MOURNING AND REJOICING Another correspondent sad the little town ox Lorgues is mourning and rejoicing. Eignteen youths, memoers of a local refractaire organisation, had just been buriqd, and another X 0 lie critically wounded. But the hated Nazis have been driven out and the French troops are in occupation. One weeping mother, as she watched the sheet-snrouded victims being lowered into a mass grave, said fiercely: “X have given my only son, but the price is not formidable. We are xree. France lives again!” The correspondent explained that the refractaires were youths who refused to obey the call-ups to work for the Germans, and, being too young to join the Maquis, formed their own organisations in the village. In Lorgues there were 60 refractaires, and since the occupation of southern France they have killed more than 200 Germans. “When the refractaires were capturned the Germans inflicted dreadful punishment before'shooting them,” the correspondent writes. "Every youth I saw at their hidden headquarters had photographs of dead comrades. Some had been shockingly mutilated before being bound and shot, their chests and stomachs being slashed with knives.” The correspondent continues: “In every liberated town, practically every man and woman who collaborated with the Germans has been arrested and flung into gaol. The bitter, brooding hatred for the Nazis is incomparable with the intense loathing the French bear the people who assisted the invaders, and their first act, as soon as the Allies drive the Nazis out, is to apprehend collaborators who have remained.” Another correspondent says the arrival of the French forces in liberated towns and villages resulted in spontaneous rejoicing, often approaching mass hysteria. Columns of troops were held up while crowds sang, with depth of feeling, the Marseillaise. To-day every liberated town is bedecked with flags and Allied proclamations have been posted on every wall. BUSINESS CEASES All business has ceased, and crowds line the foothpaths cheering, clapping and singing continuously, as the troops pass by. A grimmer note was struck as a collaborationist, in care of the Maquis, was marched off to the local goal. There was sudden silence, and then the crowd hissed with pent-up haired and suppressed fury. It was a most chilling sound—concentrated loathing, almost terrifying in its intensity.

COLLABORATIONIST HAS BEEN CAPTURED

Recd. 6 p.m. London, Aug. 21. One of the most important collaborationists so far captured is seventy-one-yrars-old Ferdinand Bouisson, a former President of the Chamber of Deputies, says the Combined Press representative in southern France. Bouisson was found hiding in St. Raphael, from where he was taken to Draguignan, because he was m danger of being lynched. A huge crowd booed and hissed when Bouisson appeared in a prisoners' parade among members of the Gestapo and women with shaven heads. Bouisson admitted he received £l5O [monthly from the Germans, but claimed he secretly helped the Patriots. GOVERNOR OF PARIS APPOINTED Reed. 10 p.m. London, Aug. 22. General de Gaulle's Government has appointed General Koenig Com-mander-in-Chief of the French Forces of the Interior, military governor of Paris and commander oi the Paris military region, according to the Brittany radio. General Koenig, broadcasting a message to Paris, said: “The hour of liberation is near.” The Algiers radio stated that numbers of the Laval Government were already leaving Be tort for another destination. German S.S. troops control the town. The Paris-Belfort :ne has b'-en cut in the name of the French Committee of National Liberation. Officers of the F.F I. Jast night took possession of the French end of the international bridge at Hendaye, says Reuter's correspondent. It is reported that, a French flag was ceremoniously hoisted, with the German customs officials formally handing over control to the French.