Paris Letter
D
0 YOU IN AMERICA
want to understand the inward thoughts of the
peaceful antifascist peasants, who have abandoned their agricultural tools
to go and operate machine-guns on the Maginot Line? You ask yourself
what each one of these two million workers can
be
thinking today, who,
in June of 1936, had seized their big factories? How would you know, if
you were satisfied to read only the official press, the big newspapers, keep–
ing in step, and transformed into instruments of propaganda? There
is,
however, a way of discovering something. Do not read those twin brothers,
the
Temps; agent
of tne Comite des Forges, or the
Populaire,
official organ
of social-patriotism. But here are two weeklies which specialize in the
"mise en boite"l:
Le Merle Blanc
2
and
Le Canard Enchaine.
8
Look through
them. You will be satisfied that the morale of the French is in truth very
high-though perhaps not in the sense meant by the official declarations.
The revolutionary and anti-war spirit is not dead, it is dormant under the
ashes. The authorities have tried to shut it up under a. triple lock in a sort
of heavy diving suit, but enormous air bubbles of wit rise obstinately to
the surface, and laugh at all prisons. The man in the street would gladly
give ten tons of reception speeches at the French Academy in exchange for
a few uncensored (they are rare!) columns from the
Canard
or best of all
from the
Merle.
White columns, indeed, for the censor does not let much pass him
by.
But nevertheless something remains. Each time that an article is censored
the facetious journalist fills the spaces with some appropriate legends.
For example:
We reproduce article XI of
tJhe
Declaration of the Rights
0/
Man and the Citizen: "Free communication of thoughts and opinions
is
one of the most precious rights of man. Every citizen therefore can
talk,
write, print freely, except to reply to the abuses of this liberty in certain
cases determined by the law."
Or else a phrase from Daladier's last
speech:
We are fighting because we do not want France to be enslaved.
Or again:
Devastated areas.
On a tombstone drawn in a white column:
Here lies liberty, pray for her.
Or again:
Liberty, what crimes are com·
mitted in your name!
Or else as an advertisement:
To build· up your
resistance to shock, take Giraudoux' tablets.
The
Canard
and the
Merle
also reproduce certain phrases from the
big newspapers! Often they can put a small grain of salt in the right
place. A few examples:
1 "Mile en boile," literally "put into the box" (or "pillory") means to hold up to ridicule, to satirize.
2
TM White Blackbird.
.
8 The Duck in Chain&
(founded durin, the
JASt
war as a burlesque of Clemenceau's wilftime
paper,
L'Homme Enchoine).
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