Evening star., 1941-09-23
French Youths Fled
Homeland TO Escape
Labor in Germany
5 Who Crossed in Cunoes
Tell How They
Were Forced to Work
BY Fl. J. ]. SARGENT,


American Newspaper Alliance.
LONDON, Sept. % (By wireless -
Those five French boys who landed
on the south coast of England after
crossing the Channel in two canoes
are tough. They represent kind of
toughness on which France must
base its hope if she is to become a
great nation again.
Their names are Guy, Christian,
Jean, Pierre and Renaud Their
surnames cannot be revealed be-
cause they all have families in oc-
cupied France. Christian was their
spokesman when I saw them to-
day at the Refugees of England
Committee, which is represented in
the United States by Lady Abigdon.
his committee works in close CO.
operation with British and United
States relief organizations in caring
for refugees.
(The Associated Press report
ed that the five youths drank
champagne yesterday with Prime
Minister Churchill at No. 10
raised his glass to them with the
toast, "Vive la France
"Our ages range from IS to 1872"
Christian told me yesterday. I'VE
feel we are quite old enough to
fight. We were fed up at home.
We lived in a little town OF LOO
inhabitants and we had 500 German
soldiers, both artillery and infantry
cuartered on us. They left us alone
usually. although when they got
drunk, as they often did, we had
to look out for trouble.
Feared Forced Labor.
"But even when they were we'll
behaved We couldn't stand them.
They were Germans and that was
enough for us. We never knew
when we might be ordered to do
forced labor.
Il will give you one example OF
the kind of provocatlon to which
we had to submit. We five were
pupils at the Loyal Lycee or high
school. When vacation time came
we received orders TO be at the
kommandtur' the following morn
ing with spades. When we arrived
we were told to go shovel sand.
It was not a question of Shovellng
sand for definite purpose. We Just
moved sand from one place TO an
other to keep us busy. At any mo-
ment we expected to be packed INTO
trucks and sent to Germany 10
work in factories.
1--WE decided to come over to Eng
land and talked about the best way
to clear out for days. Pierre had an
open Canadian canoe. So I said to
him: My friend, 1 am going with
you
I'VE found another canoe which
we commandeered and one night we
started. This was a climax to long
days of waiting. All through August
the weather had been foul. No
canoe could have lived in the rough
seas of the Channel. About the
middle of September the weather
improved. We had been tinkering
with our canoes for several weeks,
but our families knew nothing. or
pretended to know nothing. about
our plans. We carefully avoided
taking any of our relatives into our
confidence.
1--WE took with us 20 pounds of
bread which we had Wangled from
various shops, gallons Of water in
gasoline cans and rs army biscuits.
We had two compaSSeS. one for each
canoe.
Tied Canoes Together.
well, we finally got away. The
two boats were tied together with
a rope so that We would not lose
each other and We padded along,
making as little noise as possible.
When it was quite dark We raised
sail. Altogether we sailed about
one-third of the way across 1t took
us about 80 hours to make the cross
Ing
I'VE saw few ships and one Ger
man plane flew over us at o'clock
In the morning, but they evidently
failed to see us. Some fast motor
boats, German E-boats we think,
judging by their lights, passed us
during the night. but they also failed
to notice use Once we were well
out in the Channel our hopes rose
because at the start we thought we
might be spotted
THE waves were fairly heavy and
the canoes were filling with water
The other canoe had a baler, but We
had to use copper saucepan to
empty the boat
AT night We navigated by the
north star and the course we set was
so accurate that we we're only mile
or two out of our reckoning when
We reached the British coast. Two
Of us were seasick, one in each
canoe, but otherwise we were none
the worse for our journey.
Just before We left we wrote
notes to our families saying: we
are going to England
I'VE were delighted to be re-
eeived by Mr.. and Mrs. Churchill
in the gardens of No. 10 Downing
street today. The Prime Minister
spoke to US in English and Mrs.
Churchill acted as interpreter.
"One funny thing about the Ger
mans which I forgot to mention is
that the German soldiers have
radio sets in the houses where they
are billeted in our town. They care
fully listen to B. B. C. broadcaSts
and then write to Germany about
them