MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON
ON Sunday night "Jacques Duchesne "—a nom de guerre which has hitherto masked the identity of the famous actor and pro- ducer Michel St. Denis—said farewell to the London microphone and disbanded the team which for four arduous years has main- tained and stimulated the spirit of the French people. It may be doubted whether in the history of wseless anything more brilliant or effective has ever been transmitted than the nightly programmes broadcast from London under the title "Les francais parlent aux francais." The credit for this achievement,—and it will for ever remain one of the most remarkable achievements of psychological warfare,—rests mainly with Duchesne himself. The team which he gathered around him,—men like Jacques Borel, Pierre Bourdan, Jean Mann, Jean Oberle and Maurice Van Moppes,—was a brilliant team, composed of ardent and gifted workers: he had with him several British assistants who gave him loyal and affectionate ser- vice: and the British authorities, as he himself generously admitted on Sunday, "not only respected, but organised, his liberty." Yet in the last resort it was upon his strong and solid shoulders that rested, day in and day out, night in and night out, the full weight and burden of that tremendous task. He had to gain the confidence of a people who had been shocked by military disaster, humiliated by enemy occupation, and confused by the constant and insidious propaganda put out by Philippe Henriot and his Vichy assistants. He had to catch and retain the attention of men and women in a country in which listening to foreign broadcasts was a criminal offence, in which all foreign stations were ruthlessly jammed. And he had to maintain courage at a time when hope appeared to be fantastic and when night after night Pierre Bourdan was obliged to introduce his bulletin with the words "The news today is very
bad indeed." * * * *
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