Evening star., 1943-03-12
German Forces in France Weak,
Says Paris Editor on Visit Here
Couldn't Withstand
Invasion, Asserts
Fernando
BY LISBETH SOLLING.

The soft underbelly of Europe, ;
/ as Winston Churchill has described
/ the southern coast of Europe, has
not had time to harden and is still
soft as far as the French Mediter-
ranean coast is concerned, accord
ing to j, c. Fernand-Laurent, long
a Partisan member of the Chamber
Of Deputies and editor of the news
paper Jour, who is now visiting in
! Washington.
There are very few Germans now
in France he said They cannot be
everywhere. I lived on the French
Mediterranean coast for the last
few weeks before I left France three
months ago Nothing had been done
to fortify it, and very little can have
been done in the meantime. The
Germans have to use French labor
When French labor pours concrete
Tor the Germans l can guarantee
that it is very soft concrete"
Between the raid on Dieppe and
the last Russian offensive the Ger
mans kept 80 divisions. or about
100000 soldiers and officers, in
France. Today, according to Mr.
F'ernand-Laurent. there is less than
a handful of divisions.
There is no use for the Germans
to tell the French about the strength
Of the German forces, because the
French people know what they see
The Germans live among the
French. The German forces in
France today are so small they are
unable to oppose any invaders
strongly
About current unrest and revolt in
France, he says:
The French peoples hatred for
the Germans is absolutely passion
ate. The nerves of the French people
have been strained for years. The
French people cannot stand the
Germans any longer 1t is passion
that cannot be restrained"
1t is now or never, in the opinion
of Mr.. Fernand-Laurent, because
the French are starving.
People are actually starving to
DEATH he says. "A very capable
doctor friend of mine says older
peoples lives are shortened by about
five years. Many children are either
consumptive or pre-consumptive. We
are terribly worried about the future
of the people, if the war lasts one
more year, I know people who have
lost 60 pounds in weight. When you
meet people you have not seen for
two years, you don't recognize them
any more"
Mr.. Fernand L aurent visited
TOulon six days after the French
fleet was scuttled. He brushed aside
German claims that some of the
ships are serviceable. There were
10 ships and of these only three
submarines escaped and reached
North African harbors The rest
were either scuttled or burned. The
ships were still burning when I came
there six days later, and any one
with common sense must know that
such ships can never be used-at
least not within reasonable time,
such as a year"
French laborers in the Toulon
arsenals battled the attacking Ger
mans SO successfully that they were
held up for five hours, which en-
abled naval officers and men to de-
stroy the feet.
Denounces Gen. Nogues.
Mr.. Fernand-Laurent is bitter and
uncompromising in his denunciation
of Gen. Nogues, resident general of
Morocco, who followed Marshal
Petain's orders to resist the Ameri-
can landing in North Africa. He is
baffled by American acceptance of
the general.
The French people will never
forget or forgive a man like Gen.
Nogues,' he said He is responsible
for five days delay, which prevented
the American forces from reaching
Bizerte in time. If he had not fol-
lowed Petain's orders and had not
resisted the American landing, we
would have been spared four months
war in North Africa and your Amer
lean troops would already have
been in Italy at this moment"
He says German soldiers in
France today ARE shabby. don't