Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-07-12
By IsobeIIe Shelton

Dy lSODSIIS SUSItOU
Energetic is the word for SuZy
Bidault, the intelligent. enthuSi-
astic, fast-talking wife OF
Frances perennial Foreign Min
lister Georges Bidault.
Madame Bidault, who likes to
be called Suzy. accompanied her
husband to Washington for the
current meetings of the Big
Three Foreign Ministers, just as
she has accompanied him on all
his other missions outside France
since their marriage in Deem
Der, 1945.
ut was q condition Of our
marriage" she declares. There
was a twinkle in her eye when
she said 1t, but Suzy Bidault
isn't fooling about her urgent
desire to get around and see the
world, which has fascinated her
ever since her childhood when,
as the daughter of a French
army officer, she lived in Indo-
China. Madagascar and French
West Africa.
1t was this determination to
travel which caused her to aim
her sights at a career in the
French foreign service - con-
sidered a wild dream for a
French girl Is years ago.
In Foreign Service
She was the first woman to
pass the stiff French foreign
service exams (only one other
woman was even permitted to
take them until after World War
II, and she failedD. In Is years
Suzy Borel had worked herself
up to the rank of embassy coun-
sellor, first class, just two notches
below an ambassador.
Ironically, she never was given
a foreign assignment during the
entire Is years.
st studied Chinese for three
years" she recalls ruefully (she
learned English, Italian and
some notion of" Russian and
German tool. "They said, If
you were a man, we would send
you to China. But a woman,
no."
Which explains her determina-
ton to travel as the wife of the |
foreign minister and two-time |
premier, even though I go along |
Just as a wife" (She went on |
the foreign Offices inactive list !
when she married0 So far, she |
has accompanied Bidault to this |
country four times, plus trips to |
London, Rome and Moscow.
Resistance Worker
During the war SuZy Borel
served with distinguished valor
in the French resistance move
ment. whose leader-Whom she
did not meet until after the war
was one Georges Bidault.
From her post in the cultural
division of the Vichy govern
ment's foreign Office she helped
hundreds of antiNazi profess
sors. Jewish intellectuals and
others get false passports to
safety. She also funneled Vichy
government secrets to the exile
government of Gen. Charles de
Gaulle.
Her sex, which had handi-
capped her career, plus the anti
Vichy sentiments which she ex-
pressed loudly and publicly, prob
ably saved her life at that time.
A Gestapo officer said later that
the Germans knew she belonged
to the resistance movement, but
they did not take her seriously
because she was a woman and
because she talked so much"
At that, the Gestapo almost
closed in on her late in the war.
But she managed to outwit them,
and escape to the farm in South
ern France, where she spent the
last three months of the war
working in the fields.
Telegram Arrives
After the war, sight unseen,
Bidault sent her a telegram Of
fertng her a job as his assistant.
Soon after that he became pre-
mier, and he has held either that
post or the foreign ministership
much Of the time since.
They were married about q
year after she became his assist
ant. absolutely flabbergaSting
both Of our families, who had
become resigned to the idea that
neither of us would marry. We
were not so young, you know"
She was Al, he As.
After the marriage Nine. BIZ
dault continued as the French
leaders right-hand assistant in
the foreign ministry, although
her duties shifted more to pre-
siding at social functions than
running his office.
There is very narrow divid-
ing line. in any case, between the
business and social life of a
French foreign minister. His liv-