Evening star., 1940-03-25

publishes It as presumably rejecting
the attitude OF many French soldiers
at the front.
To the Editor Of The Star:
I believe the readers of your paper
would be interested in a letter have
just received from an old friend, 1t.
Pierre Tessier, who is at the front with
the French Army. The letter, passed by
censor, throws light on the general atti-
tude and morale of the French soldier
have translated parts Of the letter as
follows:
II am now a lieutenant OF artillery in
anti-aircraft defense. hope to COM
mand q battery before the end Of this
year. Our guns are excellent and the
Germans are aware Of that fact.
II shall talk bit about myself: In
civil life I am still civil engineer OF rail-
roads, and will certainly remain there
all my life; 1t is a most interesting pro-
fession which might give me the oppor-
tunity Of returning to the United States
If survive this war. I am in Lorraine
at the moment.
80 We are now at war. France,
through the weakness of her foreign
policy $50 years ago, which resulted in
the agreement Of Germany and Italy,
has suffered three invasions since. You
all know 1t in America: If France is
vanquished, 1t is the end of England, of
all the small countries of Europe, and
also OF the United States. Let us hope
that the Americans will sufficiently un-
derstand their own interest 1t is bound
up with the existence of strong France.
So long as we have not got the left bank
of the Rhine. which the unwise British
and Americans refused us in 1919, no
small nation will be able to live in free
dom In Europe. AS for Italy, she will
not hesitate once more to betray her OBJ
legations in order to side with us, il We
become the strongest. We trust, for her
sake. that she will not wait too long.
Young France, which is in the upswing,
has only the national interest at heart.
If we lose, liberty will vanish from the
universe, and through the fault Of the
free people who will have defended it too
late. In order to strangle the German
octopus and to reduce it to impotence
there must be. to the north, Scandi-
navian confederation on the model of
the United States with a strong central
government and a strong army. This
confederation will be allied with a Po-
land resuscitated by their common inter-
est. Thus power will be given to those
who have never abused it, in accordance
with universal liberty.
1T is for this that We are fighting,
and we will flght to the end; We do not
wish to risk, as did our elders Gas for in
stance, my captain, who went through
the entire war l9l4-19l8 the necessity
Of having to fight another war in 20
years, through the fault Of imbecile
dreamers who would deprive frustrate)
us of our victory.
1--WE wish to render powerless this race
of Germans who. through the lack OF an
individual soul, fling themselves into COL
lective servitude where they are subject
to the commands Of sanguinary lunatic.
Tell this to your friends: This Ia what
every free man must do in order to de-
serve to remain free.
I'VE are having bitterly cold weather,
IS degrees c. below zero, the equivalent
of which in your Fahrenheit degrees I
do not know. Do you remember the
winter of 1856, when the steam shovel
was used to break the ice in your streets
in New York, and kept you from sleeping.
How free from cares was in those days
60 already long ago.
Forgive my delay in answering you,
we have so much to do here. In our
dwellings of wood, of branches and of
earth, we feel that we are the soldiers Of
a great enterprise and we have faith.
Soon We shall have to withstand the
great shock (clash) and we await it
with confidence, for there is no man
stronger, more stubborn in the test than
a Frenchman, to whom his enemies have
given a frivolous reputation"
March %. ANDRIEN GONVERS.