Evening star., 1941-09-21

fever, yaws, ulcers and the dreaded
sleeping sickness.
True, there are elephants and
Ieopards and great conterminous
masses of plasmic flesh that are boa
constructors and pythons.
Base of Expedition.
There are gorillas, huge and men
acing. Even now Brazzaville is be-
ing used as the base of an expedition
to bring them back alive" Less
than so yards from where I sit
writing. there are II of them, dark
and ominous as they stare between
the bars of their heavy native-made
cages. They have been captured by
Phillip Carroll, well-known Amer
lean big game hunter, and are des-
tined for various ZOOS in the United
States.
There are always the dreaded
armies of ants, viciously and COM
pletely destructive. There are in
sects fantastic in their shapes and
sizes, some of them still unknown to
entomologists.
Just beyond the edge of the town,
where the green forest begins 10
thicken and billow back over the
countryside, the protusile heads OF
1eeions of monkeys chatter lnces-
sanity.
But here in Brazzaville there Is
a group of men who compose WhaU
is probably the most idealistlc army
in modern history group Oh
men who have sworn to drive the
invader from a homeland that lies
thousands of miles away to the
north. The men who compose tnlS
army have come from every sphere,
arriving by boat, by plane, by
nirogue or on foot after having
passed through country that is nor
mally considered impossible. There
are among them men OF all creeos
and religions, of all occupations, OF
all classes. They have come from
the far-fung corners of the French
Empire from the United States
from South America from
Asia. They are led unerringly by
a common ideal and by a quiet con-
fidence in the man who leads all OF
them, Gen. Charles de Gaulle.
Simple Faith in Rights.
Today the soul of France lies IN
this humid, vaporous climate that
has been known for so long as the
white mans graveyard. 1t has been
said that a man must be almost
aseptic to live there. These men, and
the women who are helping them,
have attained that quality. They
have attained it not through heroics,
not by f1ag-waving, but by simple
faith in the rights and liberties OF
all mankind.
There, in what used to be called
French Equatorial Africa, the mani
festations of young Free France
probably are more visible than any
where else in the world.
1t was in this country, only little
over q year ago, that the first small
group of the ever-groWing supporters
of, the Free French movement rallied
to the cause of Gen. de Gaulle. At
IndC llI'S i4ley WClC ilOV AuAiicA ooo'
but the a--c2 they controlled was i'm
portant Grl enormous, stretching
across the dark face of Africa for
more than 2.O00 miles and present.
Ing almost eco miles Of coastline,
forming a l-l,1 in an allied chain
that now st-c -.lc5 f-cm Atlantic to
Pacific.
Today hc-e ! C~-s.2Yille alone
their numbC- II ,-,G--S5nGs'
Nearly every &C - :.
There are C. .- >.
leurs, native tTC. =
unteers. are trai9-d % =
supporting fight. -.
are camps for D.
officers. There is the famous Camp
d'Ornano, West Point CT -rcc
France, makeshift perhaps from the
external point of view, strongly
reminiscent of the American camps
of the World War, but turning out
officers VINO are as fine as any to be
found anywhere.
From time to time one sees