Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1919-05-08
Mysteriously Reopen Cafes and
Stores Owing to Laxity of
Government.
MANY STAYED DURING WAR
Remained in Old HauntS Without
Moiestation From Police-Many
Drift in Through Swiss From
tier Since Armistice.
BY BURR PRICE.
I'm tho Nou Vcrk Herald

Paris. They are living without dis
guise in the capital, still technically an
armed camp of war In greater num-
Der, in holder manner, they are living
in the outlying districts, just beyond
the Notifications.
They are resuming the proprietor
ship of small cafes-as by magic they
are popping up with smiles behind the
little zinc bars from which they disap-
peared so precipitately in 1914.
Whence came they? Have they been
hiding in their own wine cellars
throughout the last four years?
They are renewing the direction of
small restaurants, where sauerkraut
once was the "specialite de la maison'
go into the kitchens now and there
you will find the perspiring Teutons.
Have they been hiding behind their
stoves during the war?
Re-Engaging in Trade.
They are reOpening corner grocery
stores that's not the name for
them in France-and little businesses
of all sorts. They are now freely en-
gaging in the supply trade-it has
been found that throughout the long
hOstilities many Germans who had sue
ceeded in remaining in French terri
tory had piled their business of fur
nishing war material to the army.
Scorn for such traitorous swine who
would sell death-prOducing stuff for
use against their own. countrymen is
minimized by establishment at the
laxity Of the French government in
permitting them such a practice.
For the last few weeks Paris city
officials have been Investigating the
presence Of so many Germans, and it
has been found that while few have
been in their old haunts without mo-
lestation from the police during the
war period the greater number have
been drifting in through the Swiss
frontier since the signing Of the
armistice.
At present the hands of the police
are completely tied by the fact that
90 per cent Of the Germans who re-
NAMED or have been drifting back are
naturalized as Frenchmen, and the
chamber, with characteristic prOcraS-
tination, keeps putting off passage of
the proper measures to take this nat
uraliZation from the Germans and per-
NIT the police to GUST them.
An Illuminating article was pub
lished in La Liberte the other eve
ming signed by II. CALI.
zone wonders at finding in the midst
of the entrenched camp of Paris so
many enemy Subjects" he says. "There
has never been at any time so many
foreigners in Paris. do not mean Wis
itors here temporarily, but people
stopping permanently, doing business,
exploiting enterprises and all too often
taking the jobs of modified French
men. Nothing has been done to keep
these undesirable citizens out.
'1n December, 1914 Mr. Laurent,
who was then project Of police, stated
that 10000 aliens were settled in the
capital. Today, according to the Of
fetal figures, there are III 900. The
great majority stay here without au-
thoriZation. The special commission
named to investigate foreigners and
issue permits for residence has been
unable to pass upon more than $4,000
cases. Three thousand permiSsiOns
were granted and the same number Of
refusals were made.
Stayed in Spite Of All.
''Those who did not get the proper
despite all measures taken to put them
out of the country. This they accom-
plished by disappearing for short
time and returning to the same ad-
! dress, or changing their residence and
failing to register About one hun
dred who practiced these receptions
were caught and sent to concentration
camps and another hundred were es-
corted to the frontiers.
s"The most undesirable often avoided
detection and investigation. what FISK
did they run? None at ALL"
These figures on the number OF for
eigners living in Paris during the war
and the number of them officially ap-
proved will be interesting for Ameri-
cans who have been through the or
| deal of getting matriculation papers,
permits to live temporarily, permits
to live permanently, certificates OF
domicile and other little scraps Of pa
per. 1t strikes me that the French
police were bit overzealOus in cata-
| loguing good, honest Americans
people from home, l know, were most
scrupulous in appearing before the
proper uthorities-while thousands
| of real undesirables were roaming
around unticketed, unmolested.
At the time the Bertha was firing
there was much speculation on wheth-
er or not the Germans got quick indi-
cation Of the accuracy of their aim,
and it doesn't seem at all improbable
that with such large number of their
brother Germans here they had good
working information bureau.