Evening star., 1939-11-19


worse. The Englishman at least cher
ishes the tradition of freedom and even
the military authorities recognize that
there is likely to be trouble If rights are
too greatly and too obviously trampled.
The brass hats" had few friends among
the civilian population and they provided
material for new crop of funny stories,
smutty and otherwise. And this was in
the face of the fact that the brass hat"
OF today Is rather different sort of man
from his counterpart of 20 years ago,
with lot more respect for civilian pref
udices.
France also cherishes the freedom of
the individual, but Is more used to the
brass hat and, from bitter experience.
more appreciative OF the necessity of
rigid restrictions. In England soldiers
were not much in evidence. In France
1t seemed sometimes, about every male
citizen was a soldier or policemen of
some sort.
Paris Police Snappy.
Paris also had its blackouts, not so
complete as those of the English cities.
Any violations of them were just as
rigidly enforced There was the same
practical imprisonment in the home at
night, the same greatly augmented police
force to guide lost Wayfarers and COM
bat the new freedom of the criminal
element during the hours of darkness.
The new Paris policemen were far from
the cooperative but somewhat befud-
died former grocery clerks and the like
who patrolled the streets of London.
Many of them appeared young for their
jobs, but they presented snappy ap-
pearance and were models of efficiency
and-many of them-of oficiousness.
They patrol blocks in threes, ap-
parently looking for trouble instead of
trying to look the other way, as do many
of the London police. They can get
something" in this atmosphere of great
ly restricted freedom, on about anybody
they choose to stop and, it sometimes
seems, they stop folks at random with
this delicious prospect in mind
AS in England, forgetting gas mask
is one OF the most frequent misde-
meanors. There is more excuse for it in
France where masks must be purchased.
In England they are issued free by the
municipalities and there is little real
excuse for not having one
Stumping the Policeman.
But in Paris the frequently repeated
exchange between civilian and police
man went on like this:
where's your gas mask?"
Il haven't any"
Then get one right away and don't
let me catch you like this again.
Where can I get one?"
Buy one
Where"
That stops the new upholder of the
law. He hesitates-and finally:
Il don't know. The stores are all sold
out"
But whether you can get one or not it
remains an illegal act to be without one.
Then the policeman becomes very in
quisitive about ones credentials. Every
body, native or foreigner, must have an
| identity card, issued by the police. The
| fees charged for these have contributed
materially to the cost of the war Unless
one of these can be produced, or else a
| passport with certificate that one has
applied for permit to leave the coun-
| try, the individual is in a bad way.
! There is something of the same sort in
| England, but in a much smaller way
| The alien in London must report to the
| police and have passport stamped, at
| the cost of l shilling That is the end
of it. No policeman would ever ask to
| see it, unless person we're caught in
very suspicious circumstances.
Frances Curb Tighter.
| In England, so long as one has the
means of transportation, there is little
restriction on travel from place to place.
In France, it seems sometimes, special
permit is necessary to cross the street.
The country is split into military dis
tricts and permission must be had, and
paid for, to go from one to another.
There are the same requirements, less
politely enforced, about permission to
leave the country and the same Difficult
ties about getting into any other coun-
try. There is much more rigid curb on
|
ones business. There is far more gloom
on the face of the average individual
in France than in England and, at least
in the first month of the war, much less
resumption of normal activities.
Across the Rhine the transition was
not so great and. according to popular
belief which is hard to credit, the Ger
man people like this sort of thing. Hence
it has not been so much of a strain on
their nerves. But human beings are
much the same the world over and a
frontier hardly can make so much dif-
ference.
Everywhere folks almost universally
blame their troubles on Hitler, not on
their own military authorities. When
Frenchman gets letter from around
the corner 10 days late he curses not the
French censor or the post office depart
ment, but the German dictator When
an Englishman pays 10 shilling fine
for being caught without his gas mask
he damns the Nazi chief and not the
policeman.
Neutrals Chime In.
This extends even to the neutrals.
The Dutch, for example, are greatly irri-
tated by having their ships interned
from four days to three weeks in the
Downs outside Dover. They think the
British are going to extremes. But 1t
never occurs to the officers of these ships
| to sneak harshlv of the British a,ythori