Monday,
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
February 26, 1940.
m
BY SOMERSET MAUGHAM
By
THAT are the reac-
W
tions of the French soldier to the war with Germany? We know that Hitler has attempt- ed to separate Britain and France. He hurls propaganda at the French soldiers in the front lines with this object in view. Has he succeeded?
Somerset Maugham, the Tamous English novelist, visited the Maginot Lines to find out.
In this, the second of a vivid series of articles from his pen, he tells of what he found there.
I SPENT a week with the
French Armies in Alsace and Lorraine. The case- mate I visited was well in front of the Maginot Line.
The Commandant who showed me over it had the look of a well-fed Burgher in an old Dutch picture; he a thick-set, rubicund, jovial man with a red mous- tache.
was
He took the same pride in his fortress as the commander of a man-of-war takes in his ship.
I asked him how long he could hold out against an attacking force.
"If necessary I could stand "a siege of six months," he said, and with his eyes twinkling added: "But I should hope they'd come and rescue us be- fore then."
When he showed me one of his big machine-guns and de- monstrated how it could be brought into action, he remark- ed, his eyes twinkling again: "The one thing a-gunner dreams of at night is that he will sight an enemy tank passing within range when there's no superior officer by and he can have a shot at it on his own."
The Peace Conference At Versailles-1919
They Fight
GENERAL GAMELIN
They've
A New
Made
Home
Night falls early and there aro limite to the number of hours you can play belolie.
Boredom is one of the enemies that the General Staff lins to dral with.
Books are needed, books by the thousand, and radios, with prograin- mes that will cheer and nmuse, and without too many patriotic haran- gues; they do not want their patrio- tiam aroused, those mon, it is there deep in their bones; they want
for France
to know what is
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SERVICES CONTRACTUELS DES
MESSAGERIES MARITIMES Bringing Cargo from Marseilles vin Saigon.
Consignees are hereby informed that their goods with the exception of Opium, Treasure and Volunbias are being landed and stored Into the Godowns of the Hongkong Kowloon Wharf and Godown Co., Ltd., Kow loon, whence delivery may be ob tained immediately after landing.
All claims must be sent in to me on or before 1st March, 1940, or they
Paris, Feb. 35. General Sikorsky, Polish Prime going on, of Minister, has made his first review of will not be
Damaged KILLED
will be examin-
and good humour to help them. Discipline is maintained ns course, but they want to laugh and the Polish Army now In training in they were finding life good well as in any other army, but sigh at songs, comic and senti- France. They consist chiefly of Polished by
the Company's Surveyor enough. They knew how much there is in the French army a mental; and they want entertal-miners and labourers led by officers Messrs: Goddard and Douglas in and non commissioned officers who the presence of the Consignees at 10 better off they were than the feeling of solidarity between the ments.
escaped from Poland. He was greatly a.m. on Monday 26th February, 1940. impressed by the Ano physique of Consignees must have a Revenue Oficer in attendance when any duti-
men in the cold and mud of the various ranks which is truly de- The Poilu Sticks
advanced posts.
mocratic.
With the whole nation in arms, men in every rank of society are fogether, bearing the same dis comforts and exposed to the same risks.
To His Rifle THE
PHE French soldier is above all
infantry an
man. He
the men.
A correspondent who visited the able goods are examined by the Com- made in the training of the men who by us in any case whatever. training camp saw the great progress Panty's Surveyors.
No Fire Insurance will be effected have been taught the use of the most modern weapons in accordance with French methods.
They had a neat little canteen where they could buy cigarettes, beer, chocolates and toilet neces- saries; they could even buy hair- wash and scent. There were tables in the canteen where they
A French reporter told me that heard with sincere distress of
After the Inspection General Sikor- could sit in their leisure hours, he and a number of his colleagues the loss of the British ships sky said. "I am proud of my troops drink a glass of beer, listen to had been taken along the front for Courageous and Royal Oak. who will give a good account of the radio and almost think ja trịp that Insted several days and
That hard upon
two thousand themselves when the time comes."
Later the Prime Minister and the themselves back in the cataminet at the end of it a suggestion was fofficers and men should have lost
American Ambassador received eight made that the drivers of their cars their lives had a peculiar effect an of their native village.
should be tipped.
vehicles presented by the Polish- him. Even though these were la Amerlean Ambulance Society to the mentable catastrophes they henrten- Polish Army for use as ambulances. Pour la
"Watch your step," said the officered him, for they brought it home-Reuter Bulletin. who had charge of them, "soma of to him that he was being really sup- your drivers could buy you all unported by the British Navy. a dozen times over."
Patrie
1
TRIED to find out what the
I made it my business to ask a French soldier thinks aboutnumber of men how they ate and the war.
an
I found none who had a complaint to make.
With respect to this, a general I lunched with told me
They begin the morning with a anecdote. He had been review-bread; at ten they have a snack cup of black coffee and hunk of
But the activities of Great Bri- tain on the sea and in the air do not really mean
very much lo him, any more than do those of his own navy and air force. The arm in which he puts Tis confidence is the Infantry.
I was told by a doctor. Three Eng
I will finish this sketch by a story
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Vienna blood.
I saw the men's quarters. There is not much room and the beds are close together, one row
ing some troops and on the way they call the casse-croute and this ish planes, flying over the German above another; some were lying
back to his car passed a bugler. consists of sardines or
Bausages lines, were attacked and two were on their beds rending,. others
The bugler saluted smartly, but with another cup of coffee. The brought down in flames; the pilot DA1373-0 zole Bllo
copious; hors were clustered at the farther THEY had made themselves at in the agitation of the moment midday meal is
of the third, though badly wounded, forgot to bring his feet together; docueres, meat with rice, potatoes managed to bring it down in France; end of the dormitory playing home in their narrow space, smiling, the general-stopped, follow, and a quarter of a litre of to him they found that he was un- or lentils, cheese or stewed fruit to but when the French troops got up cards or chatting.
and you felt that with youth asked him his name, where he
wine. The came from and what his occupa same, except that soup replaces the
evening meat is the conscious. tion was in civil life.
hoys d'ocurres. The ratlon of wine Nancy. When he recovered consci- They took him to the hospital at
Crossword Puzzle
АСЛОВЕ Stupid one (slang) -Bea
Inclin
$8-Pirat afgn of zodiac
One who martines
13-Device for taking
.Beeda out of rull
It-Poliested
16 hors sleep
28-Eighteenth letter o
alphabet
-Whip
73-Light Brown
24-Bird Bome
38-Person spoken to
27-Terminalon
2A-Organ
Jo-United Bleier of
Amarjes, (abbr)
17-Ran lightly
35-Edmund
37-Burged out remsina
41-mile
42-Resistance
14-End of magnet
43-Chart
47-Large birds
49-2321008 paras
60-Muslea, composition
By LARS MOBRIS ——
ANSWER TO
PREVIOUS PUZZLE
64-Lukewarm
AS-Prupal person Ad-Decimal unti
67-Hurried
28
32.
155
134
35
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442
45
146
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Closfingt 10, TOZERT 2-Uncin ise. African)
sveld by nature -nerstorm Jud
Ceria of orchids
1-kind of paster (pt.)
-Ugnised
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11-Cloned cal
12-Part of lig 14-Tear gast
17 tananist money to 70-Devoured
divided rock
particles -Kend OYE KRAID J1-Poisonour serpent 132- ht
31-Amigo by lot It-Batellite faun 38-in back water 38-Mede peculiar na 39-Bend of trice 40-Plant embere 43 Burmi
with fat of hand &t--Valuable meal 53—Parowni salutation
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When, with some embarrassment, has now been increased to a litre a uttsness his first question was he had answered these questions, day. the general said: "Well, my boy, and why are you fighting this war" "Pour la Patric; for my country,"
But of course the days are long. Except for the men who are in the front line there are interminable
much to do but to kill time.
. The general faughed." "Yes hours in which there is nothing| know all about that. That's what they taught you to say at school,
| But why are pou fighting this war?"
The French suffer from the lack
A smile broke on the bugler'sf the organised games which en- honest face and he said: "Eh, bien,ble the British soldier to occupy his
In cause des Boches, Jen ai marre. Well, because I'm fed to the teeth with the Germans.")
I thought the anecdote signi- | ficant for the insight it gave one into the solders' frame of mind. There is no hatred there, no desire to hurt, no irreconciliable antagou- lum; but Impatience, impatience with those Teutons who will not let their neighbours live in the peaco they love so well, Impatience and the feeling that things have gone too far.
It seemed to me that the French officers I came across were men of [unusual Intelligence. They
were
keen soldiers, and they gave me the | impression of knowing their business with extreme thoroughness. Modern war is a science and these word scientists.
But what particularly struck me was their solicitudo for their men, their humanity and their rensonble-j
I was told alittic story, which, trivial as it may be, seemed to ma rather touching.
ness.
Half a dozen men, sent out to do some job, had been splashing about all day in the mud and wet and when they got back to their quar- tora were soaked to the skin; theiri captain know they had no change of socks and so distributed his own: among them till theirs were dry.
Nazis
Stare
Would Make
IMAGINE that such a story
would mako a German of ficer staro.
leisure.
about the two men in the planes that had gone up with him. The doctor told him they were dend.
The pilot was just a boy. He raised himself up in bed and brought his band up to his ban- daged head in'a salute.
1
"Never mind." he said, "it's for England."
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