Evening star., 1940-06-27
Leaders Deliberately
Betrayed France,
Eve Curie Says
Truth Kept From People
Who Would Have Fought
On, She Believes
BY EVE CURE.

LONDON, June 25.-The week Of
negotiations, week that all French
men and all French women will re-
member as the darkest one of their
whole lives, has come to an end.
At this moment our soldiers have
ceased to defend their country.
France is no more the opponent of
Germany and Italy. She is no more
the ally of Great Britain.
Facts have taught us this bitter
lesson: Modern war cannot be i'm
provised. In a modern war pre-
meditation pays. In order to win. a
country should have definite num-
Der of tanks, of planes, of pilots, of
guns, Of motorcycles, of parachutes,
of everything. France had less of
all these things than Germany be-
cause for years Germany had pre-
pared for war while France was
hoping for peace. The fight came
and France was beaten.
Since the end of May we had felt
with despair that the defeat was
coming and our duty seemed to us
very clear. The duty of France was
to defend every inch of her territory,
and first of all to defend Paris
stone by stone instead of handing it
intact to the Germans.
France Led to Shame.
If the defense of our soil became
impossible, if the fight had to be
stopped in order to avoid useless
sacrifices of life, the fleet, the air
force and part of the army could
go on fighting in the French Empire
The government could move to
North Africa.
Should the empire be also con-
uuered, the government could then
move to England, with the French
ships, airplanes and gold. 1t could
continue to fight, even symbolically,
at the side of the ally to whom
France was bound by precise con-
tract that none of us considered as
a mere chiffon de papier."
From the moment when the mill
tary situation became hopeless
France had to choose between a de-
feat and a capitulation, between
honor and dishonor, between great
ness and shame. The whole world
will learn and remember for CEN
turies who are the men and also the
women who have deliberately, meth
odically led us to capitulation, dis
honor, shame.
Truth Hidden From People.
They could only succeed by hiding
the truth from the French people
The French are not guilty-they
have been brave. After so many
sacrifices they were ready for more
sacrifices. But until it was all over,
they had been told nothing. For
several days the soldiers, the peas
ants, the workers were not even in
formed that Paris had fallen into
German hands.
And at this same minute they do
not know yet on what atrocious con-
ditions the armistice has been signed
with our enemies. Nobody has dared
tell the soldiers, the refugees, all
those homeless people who wander
from place to place, all over our un-
fortunate country, what price they
are going to pay for this treacher-
Gus peace. Exhausted and miserable
as they were, had they known the
facts they would have refused to
surrender.
We were prepared-and we still
ere-to continue without delay our
work for France after military de-
feat. A few weeks ago remember
how I tried to face this catastrophe,
the collapsing of all our dreams. of
sll our prides. I kept repeating to
myself: A country can lose a war,
even disappear from the map, as
Poland has. Then she can work pa
tiently. fight back and win. 1t may
take years, but we must do it.
Must Help British Win.
The French are going to do it
1ust the same. But we did not fore
see how difficult our task would be.
We were prepared to start very low,
from misery, ruin and disaster. We
= Gid not know that we would have
to start from lower still, from the
caricature of the country we loved,
from a new France who wears a
hypocrite mask that we refuse to
recognize. We did not know that
each Frenchman would have, first
of all, to redeem himself for his
share in this peace with honor
To redeem ourselves there is only
one way. The war against the Nazis
is going on. The British Empire is
waging this war. The victory of the
British Empire and of its Allies is
the one and only chance left to pre-
vent Hltler's domination of the
world.
<-onur;.ht 1oaO hy Neu York Tribune. Inc