eae.

NN

ER an ba nj ROCA das asad bape de

PARIS
middle-aged, rather well-
dressed woman walked ins

to a small cafe across from
the Presidential palace in the
late afternoon of December
11, and, rubbing her hands to

“warm them, sat down at one of

the tables.

“What are all these people doing
out here?” she asked, after having
ordered a warm drink. The woman
behind the bar, quite obviously
the owner of the cafe, answered:
“They are demonstrating against
war.”

“Well, I should hope so,” said

the guest.
' “Tt isn’t really against War,” the
white jacketed waiter interjected.
“It’s against German rearma-
ment.”

“But that is the same thing,”
the woman at the table protested
firmly.

Outside some 7000 workers were
crowded in the streets around
L’Elysee, the official residence of
Vincent Auriol, president of
France. They were delegates,
elected during w6rk stoppages in
Paris factories charged with
delivering the workers’ protest
against creation of a new Wehr-
macht.

It is evident that these delegates

-and the workers they represent

are not among the supporters of
the Atlantic Pact. Then who are
these “friends” who, according to
US. Secretary of State Dean
Acheson’s New Year's message,
constitute such a “great source of
strength” for Washington? Is it
only the Communists, is it only
the working class, that oppose
the Atlantic Pact and its core,
the rearmament of Germany?
These “friends,” of course, are
to be found among the leaders
of the Socialist party, among the
upper class, and among the fascist
mob around General Charles de
Gaulle. But even the conservative

, Press, partly because it knows the

sentiment of the masses, partly
because of fears and contradic-
tions in the capitalist camp, is re-
luctant to speak out in favor of
all aspects of the pact. —

Here is a typical opinion from
the December 9 edition of Ce
Matin. Discussing the rearma-
ment. of Germany, the paper ask-
ed: “What becomes of France in
all this?” and answered: “She
sees the American animal trainer
tackling the Russian bear in his
cage. She has no doubt the
trainer will eventually win. But
unhappily, she is in the cage as
well.” ;

Combat said the same day it
would be perilous to believe that
the Soviet Union would permit the
creation of a German army on

' the Elbe, but that the U.S. because

of its geographical position, can
well afford to take such a risk.

“For France the situation is al-
together different,” the paper
commented. “The risk for her
means immediate occupation and
a devastating battle later on.”

The very anti-Soviet nature of
these comments only shows more
clearly the seriousness with which
even. these circles, the class
brothers of Truman, Acheson and
company, view the adventurism of
German rearmament.

e

But the hope of stopping Ger-
man rearmament, of tearing the
guts out of the plan for mass
murder, rests with the masses of
French people. Whatever their
political thinking, they are say-
ing, “No.”

How loud is this “No?” How
many people are saying it? It is
the voice of France.

The expressions of this protest
are manifold. The French Com-
mittee of the Fighters for Peace
has launched a national referen-
dum asking the population to vote
against rearmament, There are
work stoppages, resolutions adopt-
ed by city and town councils, dele-
gations to elected representatives,
and mass demonstrations.

Let me pick just some examples

This drawing of a French youth killed by police for ‘putting up a peace poster has become
symbolic of the French people's fight against a n2w war.

The French

si
UES Te At TE ae TSE St ae gt SE ae a at aT tt nT AY TT 8 By GEORGE LOHR DOT GS Se Se a

_ Villages, how about the peasants,

from the pile of clippings record-
ing the activities that is stacked
before me.

Large groups of worker at the
huge Renault automobile factory
in Paris called upon their fellow
workers to protest the capitula-
tion of the French government in
accepting German rearmament.
When the management took re-
prisals against them, 3000 dele-
gates, elected from plant depart-
ments, demonstrated before the
manager’s office.

Here is the dramatic voice of an
individual named Georges Corete,
who voted in the referendum a-
gainst rearmament and added
these remarks: |

‘Deported to Mauthausen (by
the Nazis) for 16 months. I re-
turned ¢ompletely crippled and
I am 100 percent incapacitated.

' My children, as well as myself

do not want to see the rearm-
ament \of Germany, and have
decided to fight against it with
all their power.”

Here is the text of a letter to
President Auriol from Raymonde
Semard, whose father was ex-
ecuted by the Nazis: ‘

The men whom the Americans
want to arm are the same who
on March 7%, 1942, killed my
father, upon whom the French
republic had bestewed the title
of lieutenant-colonel. They are
the same who shot my brother-
in-law in 1943, assassinated my

cousin in 1944 and, during the
liberation was post humously
awarded the Legion of Honor.”

The writers of these two letters

do not seem to count themselves
among the friends of Achéson and
his war plans. :
eo. ;

Here are some other “news
items: The miners of the Plichon
pits in Montceau-les-Mines have
unanimously spoken out against
German rearmament; At Pit 10
of Courrieres at Billy-Montigny,
the morning and afternoon shifts
assembled at the pit head and
unanimously adopted a resolution
protesting German rearmament.

All the workers of a small cloth- °

ing factory in Clichy, including

_Some who had refused to sign the .

Stockholm peace petition, went on
record against German rearma-
ment.

A number of iron mines in the
Moselle region were struck for an
hour to support a demand for-a
wage increase and to protest the
rearmament of Germany. At Mo-
yeuvre-Grande, the miners were
refused admission to the mine
when they returned after the hour
was up. They promptly decided
then to strike the whole following
day.

‘At Las Precision Modern metal
factory in Vierzon, 90 percent of
the workers staged a work stop-
page to protest German rearma-
ment. Br.

. In Paris Second District, 50

school teachers signed @ petition
against German rearmament.
Railroad yards, mines, factories

of all kinds, the maritime indus-

tries, white collar groups and in-
tellectuals—they all report mass
opposition to a new Wehrmarht

’

and Luftwaffe.

in the neighbourhoods, too, there
is intensive activity. In Paris’
10th District, a metal plaque
mounted on a dwelling last month
bears this inscription: “The resi-
dents of this house mourn two
executed, one killed and 12 de-
ported. French men and women,
remember this. On Dec. 13, the
mothers of the district stood in
an honor guard before this build-
ing for eight hours,

In Paris’ 13th District, a group
of signature collectors visited 110
homes on the same day. They
received 213 signatures against
German rearmament, with only
three refusals. :

In hundreds of towns*municipal
councils have taken, the initiative
in arousing the population to the
menace of a new war. The mem-
bers of these councils are close
to their constitutents, and their
actions only reflect officially the
great concern of the French peo-
ple over the plan fo put arms into
the hands of the Nazis. i
©

Acheson can try to cover up the
suicidal adventurism of Washing-
ton by spreading the illusion that
the French people will supply the
Manpower for a Western Euro-
pean army for a war of agggres-
sion— \

(The commercial press in the
U.S. can minimize the popular
resistance here to German re-
armament or, in some instances,
chide the French for this re-
sistance and. blame it on some

“queer characteristic” of the
French— {

But the public in the U.S. and
Canada must be told the truth,
must be reminded continually
that the German army has dé
vastated French territory thrice
within a century.

It must not be forgotten that

the present French generation —

has suffered the horrors of @
Nazi occupation, and that there
is not a family that has not
suffered at least one casualty, in
one form or another, during the
war.

There are posters all over the
walls and billboards of France,
calling for opposition to a new
Wehrmacht, that dramatically
tell this story.- They show pho-
tographs of a typical French
family, taken between the period
1870-1871, the period of the
Franco-Prussion War, the First

orld War and then the Second
World War.

The captions simply identify
those members of the family
who have been killed by the —
Germans during this period.

Another poster makes the
Same point. It is the appeal of
a@ group of people residing in.
Paris’ Fifth District ‘for their
feHow citizens to speak out
against German rearmament.
‘Among the signers are a mem-
ber of the liberation army, hon-
ored with the Legion of Honor —
and the War Cross; a colonel
and a lieutenant-colonel of the
Force Francaise. de L’Intereur
(Resistance army); three pris-
oners of war and two persons
who wére deported by the Nazis
to Germany; a bearer of the
Medal of Resistance, a member
of the Federation of Reserve
Officers, a doctor honored with
the War Cross, and a professor
who is a veteran of the, First
World War.

It is understandable that such
men want no part of a new
Wehrmacht and do not feel
“friendly” towards Acheson and
the other promoters of the
Nazis.

e :

But ont might say, all this is
Paris, where the Communists
are powerful, or industrial areas

-with huge trade unions, or even

towns with some workers among
the population. How about the

who are largely Catholic and
with a large segment of con-
‘servative opinions?

Let us look at Bacqueville, a
village of less than 300 inhabi-
tants. Here 91 percent of the
population is on record against
German rearmament. An _ iso-
lated hotbed of communism?
Wrong! In the municipal elec--
tions, the Communist party re-
ceived only 55 votes, with 70 go--
ing to opposition parties. .

There is the village of Mene-
treux-le-Pitois, population of 364,
Here 360 have voted “no” in the
national referendum against Ger-
man rearmament. The first to
vote was the village priest and

‘the second was the mayor.

Fernand Vigne, secretary-gen-
eral of the French Committee of
the Fighters for Peace, also
knows personally about the fight
against the Nazis, During the
war he was attached to the
general staff of the resistance
army in the south of France
and has the rank of lieutenant-

colonel of the FFI, -

He said that as soon as the
decisions of the Atlantic Pact
meeting in Brussells became
known. his organization decided
to start a mass movement so
that the people’s opposition to
German Yearmament could be-
come known. This public oppo-
sition, Vigne emphasized, is not
just “based on sentimentality but
on the reality of the danger.”
He cited a few additional ex-
amples to demonstrate the broad
sweep of the campaign.

Word had just come, he said,
that in the southwest 205 lead--

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 26, 1951 — Page 4