“THE NEXT TIME WE SEE PARIS”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 202, 24 August 1944, Page 5

“THE NEXT TIME WE SEE PARIS”

CITY WILL BE BITTER ITS FALL WILL CAUSE GREAT REJOICING ftipecial Correspondent—N.Z.P.A.) Recd. 7.45 p.m. London, Aug. 23. AU eyes are on Paris, its lioeration will be the occasion for general rejoicing, despite the fact that its capture from the Germans may be incidental to the present campaign. It will be the second European capital to be freed from Nazi domination, and wnen it comes again unoer the control ot its own people it will be a symbol as wed as a prize. Faris has sunered bitterly under German rule, and it is realised mere will be a big problem for the Allies oi administration and supply. The Germans nave dealt harsnly with Parisians, but they have railed to oreak the spirit or the people. The Fighting French headquarters tn London state that, at a conservative estimate, 18,000 Parisians nave been put against the wall and shot in the last tour years. Of them 6000 are buried in a single cemetery at Tniais, in the outskirts ot. Paris. There also have ‘ been mass deportations of Parisians, numbering 340,000, who are now in German slave camps, while 30,000 more are political prisoners. Email wonder that there has been appearing, all over Paris since the invasion, a statement saying: “Mark down your Boche in advance—there will not be enough to go round on the day." Parisians are not well armed, because it has been difficult to smuggle in supplies through tne German military control, ana impossible to drop supplies from the air, as to the Maquis. But Paris has been a centre or resistance, producing the first ot the secret of wnich there are now 80 In France, and typical of its spirit was a procession or Sorbonne students, which carried out the march m silence. They were led by two young men, carrying a pole each. Later, the Germans realised it was a hostile demonstration, the two poles i Deux and Gaules), symbolising de Gaulle.

There have been many speculations what Paris will be like when liberated. and it is pointed out that, like London, it will probably be a snabbier and tougher place. Ail its big hotels were taken over when the Germans arrived and many of them used as barracks and offices. Some places of entertainment remained open, but the, newspapers were “directed." The opinion has been expressed that Allied soloiers will not find the people particularly gay, and beneath the great welcome win oe a bitterness, tiredness and recrimination. It is believed long lists ot collaborators have been drawn up months ago, and that reckonings will be swift.

D. W. Brogan, writing in the Evening Standard, expresses the opinion that when the German collapse in Paris comes, there will perhaps be two underground movements, and the immense, dammed up floods of resentment and passion, what Burke called old Parisian fury,’ may burst out. Brogan adds that Parisians are sure to be excited, inflammable and angrv. That there will be fighting is not unlikely. Gangsters, like those enrolled by Darnand in his Militia, the French wing of the Gestapo, ’or Doriot's musclemen, or thugs employed even before the war by that imitator of Storm Troopers, Bucard—these men know their lives are forfeit, and they will die hard if they do not get away in time to take part in the last spasms of the Third Reich.

From the point of view of the Allies, there will be a problem in feeding the city and supplying its necessities, and it is expected similar organisations will be established as in Naples and Rome to this end.