Evening star., 1939-09-22

soldiers and officers seem convinced
they are fighting for something else.
Hitler and Hitlerism Is far more
than Germany are the enemies.
France has mistakenly put up with
Hitler and Hitlerism far too long
and now the moment has come to
destroy them, they feel.
Want Lands Restored.
From the motorcychst to the
colonel of the French S. G. H. O.,
the first French war aim is Kidding
the earth of man and philosophy
which seems to the French-and not
to them alone-ruthless, aggressive
barbarism of sort incompatible
with the life of free men.
Hitler may make such peace Of
fers as he likes. But unless he re-
stores all he has taken outside Ger
many in the last few years, here at
the front the men would find such
an offer unacceptable. The French
army has job to do. The French
army is quietly, Systematically and
soberly setting about doing it.
Four American correspondents left
Paris early today and reached Ger
many at Saareguemines in time for
lunch at the officers mess. It is
neither useful nor necessary to trace
their itinerary lest what they saw be
located or identified.
Corfoiy, coot{n,c or An o~o ,,oS
open for inspection even by the we'll
disposed. Near Paris the roads are
rather heavily blocked with vast
trains and motor transport, some
still uncamouaaged. Near the front
everything that moves or belongs to
the army is camouf1aged, mostly in
smart autumn shades that melt into
the landscapes.
At one point the correspondents
were almost looking into the barrel
of gun that seemed a mile long,
before they noticed it, so imper-
ceptibly did its colors melt into those
of the hillside. They met old friends
in the person of Paris buses and
recognized them under their Indian
war paint and blued windows.
Headlights Dimmed.
We started out before dawn. In
this area and generally throughout
France one may drive with city
headlights dimmed blue. But at the
front itself not a light appears after
dark save the occasional flicker of
an officers hashlight.
The French are taking no chances
of having their airplanes bombed
on the ground. Near the air fields
one sees Fre1aeh aviators fraternal-
ly mingled With British air force Of
ficers in gray-blue. incidentally,
both speak extremely well of the
warplanes purchased in America,
notably of two sorts.
Near the fighting line, the French
Army has gone into khaki dis
tinguishable only by its cut from
the British. But behind the lines,
driving trucks or commandeered de-
livery wagons, working with shovels
on those innumerable defense lines
that would seem to make France
impregnable, many still wear the old
horizon blae of Verdun and the
Somme. Planes wheel above the
country roads, almost indistinguish-
able from crows.
Long serpents of trucks wind along
between those twin rows of trees
that line innumerable French roads.
Soldiers in village after village step
aside reluctantly to make room for
a car that-mirac acle-contains only
four civilians, for already in some
zones civil motor cars are only q
memory.
Women and Children Work.
The actual fighting zone is almost
empty of inhabitants. Further back
in what might be called the gen.
erals country-the population is still
half present and the hard work
continues to be done by women,
girls and boys.
Still farther back the military
authorities are struggling valiantly
to persuade the inhabitants to de-
part voluntarily, but here, as in
Paris, are meeting the almost in