Evening star., 1935-06-23

in all cases. Many have become
naturalized Frenchmen; others were
allowed entry as political refugees
and today are passportless and state
less. One result is highly unde-
sirable accretion to the underworld,
members of which are also strongly
suspected of espionage.
Such tourist" element of the un-
employed, however, IS the merest
trifle compared with the vast armies
of hundreds of thousands of other
foreigners implanted with their fam
lilies right and left, from Brest to
Nice and Dunkirk to Bayonne.
We're Welcomed Once.
"Close the frontiers!" apostrophes
Paul Morand, referring to these
people. I'VE are already Gods con-
centration camp!'
Maybe. Yet exactly how did France
become such humanitarian institu-
ton?
Very largely through the desires
Of the French themselves, all comers
were welcomed to help rebuild the
country after the war and to de-
velop it, and as a result of the
republics proud pose of offering asy-
lum to political refugees of all breeds.
In the boom times these alien sinews
we're thrice welcome; now, when pros
perity is no more, the cry is dehors
les etrangersI Writing in Marianne,
LSy,, me p,,oI RarI fhiy,kc fbot 0u,bap ~
comes to foreigners, it would appear
that the French lose their sangfroid-
that they are drunk one moment
with generosity, the next with cruelty;
often the two together" There can
be little question of double emotion
hereabouts.
Even before the war France was
host TO vastly more foreigners than
any other country. During 19l4-18
their number decreased considerably,
although many were drawn into war
work and munitions. Into these twin
spheres were also pressed or recruited
round 250,000 newly arrived col
ored men-North Africans C'Sidis')
Anamese, Chinese and Negroes. This
started a grave problem of its own,
which today finds expression in the
presence of $1,000 Sidis in the Paris
area alone, $4,000 of them unem-
ployed and likely to be bad men.
White Russians Come.
This imported colored army proved
complete failure as workers. Its
members were also diseased and GRIM
inal. and little time was lost in
repatriating most of them. But almost
Immediately came the White Russian
exodus before the BolShevikS, followed
by the wholesale flight of Greeks and
Armenians from Asia Minor. France
took at least 100000 from these two
sources.
Meanwhile something else was hap
pening. Few who beheld it will forget
the astonishing rapidity with which,
as early as the Summer of 1919, the
devastated regions were being put
back under civilization in the re-
claimed French departments. The
labor shortage was acute at first, and
in succeeding years flood of laborers
was allowed to flow in, almost as q
tidal wave, from Italy, Yugoslavia,
CzechoSlovakia, Hungary and Poland.
Those who did not go into the fields
went down into the mines in the north,
repairing the immense destruction
caused by the Germans there. This
done, they assumed the miners lamp,
with a minority French element.
French miners thought the Poles
particularly-could now do their job,
and freely secured other work.
A third tremendous call for foreign
labor emanated from the lavish re-
building that was soon to spread
through France. Every one with money
to spare wanted to Put it into real
estate. The Italians were the men for
this job; among other things, they
virtually rebuilt the Riviera. A fourth
and final demand for alien Drawn
arose from the rapid industrialization
of the country. Before the war France
had been preponderantly agricultural
She still Is (51 per cent?, yet beside
her fair fields there now stand great
industrial plants that never existed
formerly.
Communities Established.
A good proportion Of the alien host
thus invited or allowed in-numbering
perhaps 1,500,600 in all, dependents
included-may have vaguely distribute
ed itself here, there, anywhere; yet
soon one could put ones finger on the
map and designate whole countrysides
as Spanish" Italian" Polish" and
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