The Wilmington morning star., 1944-12-15
By WESTBROQK PEGLER
copyright, 1914, by King Features Syndicate.

copyright, 1914, by King Features Syndicate.)
NEW YORK, Let us try to recall the ceAduct
of the French communists in the hour OF their
own countrys disaster and up to the German
attack on Russia. Thus reminded we should be
better able to judge the clamor in favor of the
communists who have risen in the guise OF
patriots in France, Belgium, Italy and Greece.
I insist again that we never trust the
| communists and that we must dfStrust all poll
ticians and propagandists who knowingly asso-
ciate with them, whether in government or In
popular movements, including the union move
ment and the Political Action Committee OF the
CLIO.
| "Berlin Diary" by William Shirer, Ameri-
| can newspaper and radio reporter, was best
seller of l941 He came home after the blltZ,
fiercely hating the NaZis and has now
returned to Europe to write newspaper 1ea-
ture called 1.-THE Propaganda Front in which
| he serves as a propaganda, himself. Nova
| days his detestation seems to run against fas-
cism but he may just regard fascism or Hitler
ism, as the more immediate menace and may
| be dealing according to his lights with first
things first.
On Aug. %, 1889, Shirer wrote in his diary
that there was great excitement over the Russo
German agreement.
'Its a virtual alliance, and Stain, the sup
posed arch enemy OF Nazism and agrees
| Poland he noted. THAT Stain should play
such crude power politics and also play into the
hands of the Nazis overwhelms the rest of
us. Stains step should kill world communism.
Will French communist who has been taught
! for six years to hate Nazsm above all else,
swallow Moscow's embracing of Hitler"
He erred in his guess that Stalins action
would kill world communism but so did others.
| On June u, 1910, after France had collapsed,
| foi,1 ole +hof
France did not fight. The fields of France
are undisturbed. The French blew up many
bridges but they also left many strategic ones
! standing. More than one French soldier talked
to thought it was downright treachery. And,'
he continues, 'From German and French
sources, alike, hear many stories of how the
communists had received orders from their
party not to fight
On August S, 1910, while American comnu-
nists were committing industrial sabotage here
and collaborating with Hitler because Hitler
and Stain were partners Shirer wrote further:
"A photograph in one of the papers shows
French miners unloading coal at pit Watch
ing over them is a helmeted German soldier
with bayonet.
'Their Moscow dominated communist party
and their unions told them not to work, when
France was free. Now they must work under
German bayonets.'
yer. He enjoys American citizenship because
of some relationship to Lafayette. He is the
| son-in-laW of Pierre Laval and a nephew OF
Mrs. Alice Roosevelt Longworth. He is well &C.
quainted with Franklin D. Roosevelt with whom
he conferred several times after France fell.
De Chambrun is, or was, rather over-bear-
ing French cub politician but, when his country
went to war; he went too, as company officer.
He served in the Maginot line during the phoney
war and was detached for liaison work with the
little British expeditionary force shortly before
the blitz.
Unlike the communists of France, De Cham
brun fought his best while they were refusing
either to fight or to work.
| In 1910, after France collapsed, De Cham
brun made several clipper trips to the United
States trying to promote help for his country.
He also wrote little book called II Saw
France Fall"
have met De Chambrun several times and,
after the fall, heard him plead the case Of
France Throughout long talk one afternoon
he revealed only hatred for the Nazis and
largely blamed the communists and the popu-
lar front for the disaster.
In II Saw France FALL Rene recalls that
when the Nazis were preaching the nobility OF
work and building their Siegfried line Jour
soldiers might have been asked to work relent-
lessly night and day building huge anti tank
bitches between the North sea and Switzerland.
as in peace, did not mold and inspire public
opinion. Hard work was not popular and they
wanted votes.''
| De Chambrun recalls another time in 1887
when, during the reign Of the Popular front,
Maurice Thorez, the French communist lead
er, with 70 seats in the chamber demanded
an hours recess before he would cast his votes
on a certain question.
Obtaining this delay, he recalls, ThoreZ went
to the phone and called Moscow to get au-
thority from Stain to support the government
Sumner Welles the former under-secretary OF
state in our country, wrote recently: The
strength Of the communist party in France is
unquestionably very great. In the case OF the
recent demand that the communist leader,
Maurice Thorez, who deserted during the War;
be amnested and permitted to return to France
from Moscow, General De Gaulle has been
obliged to give in"
This traitor then returned to France and re-
Gently held big communist rally in Paris at
which he was greeted by an American soldier
from the Bronx, in uniform. Moscow had
shielded this traitor for five years.
We have many such traitors here who also
have received, as it were, political amnesty
from the Roosevelt government. They have
great power to cripple war industries, tie up
our shipping, and isolate our armies in Europe
in the event that the European communists
! should decide to take the continent and
the United States should refuse to submit