Evening star., 1942-10-18
BY JOSEPH MORTON,

BY JOSEPH MORTON,
Associated Press Foreign Correspondent.
SOMEWHERE IN WEST AFRICA
Delayed).-A vast underground
railroad" set up by the Fighting
French and their Allies to free fell
low countrymen from the Vichy yoke,
is doing rushing business through
out the great hulk of West Africa.
Like its historic counterpart in
Americas Southern States before the
Civil War, it operates with hit-or-
miss efficiency and the greatest of
secrecy. So great are the obstacles
in its path that four persons have
gone to the prisons of Dakar, Bamako
and Timbuktu for every one of the
thousands making the journey over
its safely.
The Vichy government is de-
termined to waylay each passenger"
en route to free soil," and, the
Fighting French say, has instructed
frontier guards to shoot suspects on
sight and ask questions afterWard.
Equally strong measures have been
taken to detect and wipe out the
'depots," which serve not only as
hiding places but also as distributing
points for bales of carefully pre-
pared propaganda expounding the
cause of the democracies.
Yet the traffic increases and the
Fighting French grow stronger.
Three Big Factors.
I have visited several terminals
and way stations and have talked
to a number of refugees resting
after hazardous Journeys over the
line. They agree that three big
factors lie behind the surge in
cuisines" ENTRY of America into
the war, decline of the franc, and
the growing scarcity of wine, i'm
ported foodstuffs and cotton cloth
in Vichy colonies.
They stress the wine shortage
particularly, pointing out that
colonists on the Ivory Coast now
can buy only half liter a day.
You know how it is" they say.
"Frenchmen without their wine
are hardly Frenchmen at ALL"
The scarcity of cloth has become
an acute problem, too, because ma
tive ofhceholders, no longer able to
buy proper clothes" to distinguish
them from the lesser important, feel
their dignity has been offended.
Refugees who for one reason or
another come over the railroad"
eventually wind up at one of the
principal control offices-in British
FreetoWn, Bathurst and Accra, in
Fighting French Brazzaville and at
several other places whose location
I learned in confidence. At each
OF these points they are put up IN
rest houses while readjusting them
selves and awaiting assignment to
new jobs under the Fighting French
government When they leave they
draw the same salary as under the
Vichy regime and have a position
Of equal rank or Importance.
Posts Given to Men.
I learned that one such rest CEN
ter had cleared" a district COM
missioner from a Vichy coastal
colony, an army captain, several
sailors and a doctor all in 10 days
time. One was given post in the
interior of French Equatorial Africa
another sent to the Lake Chad re-
gion,sone to Brazzaville and the re4a
mainder to London.
The way-stations and hiding
places are wherever friends and
Allies. can be found Some station
masters. actually are Vichy officials,
working at perfunctory colonial jobs
by day and aiding the forces OF
Gen. Charles De Gaulle by night.
Others are native chieftains, secret
ly allied with the Fighting French,
but taking whatever they can get
from Vichy for keeping their tribes
men in line.
One such man was the Emperor
Moshi. who ruled over more than
million natives in the Wagadu
section of the Ivory Coast. Because
he now is dead, the Fighting French
are willing to reveal his activities.
They are particularly fond of tell
ing about the three French non
commissioned officers who gained
permission to spend one day in
Moshi's region hunting lions. These
men arrived on motorcycles, chatted
briefly with the Emperor, and then
tore out for British territory 300
kilometers away.
Delayed Issuing Order.
When word got back to their
camp the French ordered Moshi to
send horsemen into the bush to ap-
prehend them. Somehow or other
he seemed to misunderstood and
delayed issuing the order for three
days. The men made it safely and
now are in the Fighting French
Army.
Others have journeyed over the
railroad" in equally sensational
fashion.
One was a sailor who signed on
a French ship at Marseilles and
rode with it until it dropped anchor
at LONE, an important port in
Togoland 6 miles from the British
Gold Coast. Then he let himself
down an improvised ladder and
swan through the surf all the way
to British soil, stumbling up on the
peach unclothed and completely ex-
II 4 DEcFMRFR An Adj