LE JOUR DE GLOIRE
tv
WHEN the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with sing- ." Probably not many Parisians, perhaps not many Frenchmen, membered those familiar words on Wednesday, but the emotion is the same. For the liberation of Paris is like nothing else. After the tremendous days we have been living through in this past eek the redemption of the capital comes as crown. Victory in rmandy and far beyond Normandy was achieved already, but as is the authentic symbol and certificate of victory. For Paris to renchmen is the essential centre of their country, more so than ondon is to England, much more than the tawdry city on the pree is to Germans. ,And it is characteristic Of Paris that her beration came from within. Her own. arm brought salvation. anted risings are in her tradition. Nowhere has the call " aux mes, citoyens," been responded to through the centuries with eater zest. Georges Clemenceau was one of those who rallied to against the same foe in 3870. The redemption of the city by its tizens (the comparison with what is happening in Warsaw is elancholy) has been to all appearance as well planned and as nicely 'fled as the whole of the Allied campaign in France. The approach the American armies, made the retention of Paris by the Germans peless and, to judge from the scanty particulars so far available, ey quickly found it expedient to conclude an armistice with the rench Forces of the Interior who formed the spearhead of the tack within the capital. The result is that most of the Nazi officials I garrison must have escaped ; air reconnaissance has reported a eady flow of transport from Paris eastward for the past week. at is unfortunate, but it is as nothing beside the liberation of the which throughout the globe typifies everything characteristic the French nation, its charm, its gaiety, its courage, its strength. All that, it may be said, is sentiment. Call it rather psychology ; are learning at last, in part from the enemy, the role that ychology can play in warfare. And psychologically the resurgence Paris confirms for the Allies the certainty of victory and for the ermans the certainty of defeat. While Hitler held Paris he might nsider himself firmly planted in France. Without it even he must use how precarious his remaining foothold has become. And at moment even to speak of the remaining foothold is to use aguage that will be out of date before the words appear. Hour by r the German hold is slipping. Brittany has gone ; Normandy gone, and with it the flower of the German troops in Western
Europe ; Paris has gone, and Orleans and Marseilles and Grenoble. Lyons and Bordeaux, and in all likelihood Avignon and Toulon, will have gone before these words are printed. Dijon must follow soon, and after that eyes will turn involuntarily to &Hort and Metz and Strasbourg. Only in the north-east corner, between Paris and Le Havre and Calais, is the enemy still established. Southern England has special reasons for wanting to see that area cleared, and it may not have long to wait. The recovery of Paris, centre as it is of a vast system of communications, will help considerably, and once the British and Canadians who are dealing with the remains of Kluge's forces on the west bank of the Seine have finished the hideous but inevitable task, they will be free to avail themselves of the bridgehead so firmly held between Mantes and Vernon and sweep across to deal with the indifferent Fifteenth Army still holding the Pas de Calais and the adjacent departments. Meanwhile the restoration of Paris has its political aspect. General Le Clerc's Second Armoured Division has already entered the capital. It cannot be long before the Provisional French Government has moved from Algiers to its rightful home, and it is highly encouraging that at this particular moment the agreement between Britain and France, and the United States and 'France, giving the Provisional Government all the recognition and practical status it asks for is on the point of being signed. France is regaining, and must be accorded, her place among the nations.
And from the East, too, comes light. Rumania's capitulation at this moment was unexpected, though the decisive Russian successes beyond Jassy obviously left her no more time for dallying. Negotia- tions of some kind have apparently been dragging on since Prince Stirbey went on his mission to Cairo, and months ago M. Molotov's wise disclaimer of any imperialistic Or subversive intentions towards Rumania no doubt impressed whatever politicians of sense there may be in a country so conspicuously lacking in such an asset. There is nothing admirable or dignified in Rumania's surrender. Her avowed purpose is to get back that portion of Transylvania which Hitler seized from her as a bait to Hungary in 3940. But that is of no consequence. The surrender was no doubt un- conditional, as all surrenders of German satellites must be, and the opening of the road for Russia's Ukrainian armies to pass through to whatever goal they may have in view must cause fresh tremors at Berchtesgaden. If Rumania wants to fight Hungary, that is her affair. If she has to fight Germans. she can no doubt count on Russian help. The first result of her defection from the German camp is that Germany will get not a gallon more of Rumanian oil. The second must be to bring Bulgaria to the point of immediate peace with the Allies. When that happens Germany's position in Yugoslavia and Greece will be impossible. To those who remember that Sunday in the autumn of 1918 when the news of Bulgaria's surrender came as the prelude to the end of everything, the tag ex Oriente lux takes a new significance. But here, a final word is needed. The Germany of 1944, strained to breaking-point though it is after five years of war, is not the Germany of 1918. The Nazis may be driven back within the frontiers of their country, and soon will be. But there may be hard fighting still before the Allied troops march through the Brandenburger Tor.
