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however, was soon spoiled by the Petain government which stepped in and
issued a decree declaring that it would henceforth be strictly prohibited to
take off or put on one's clothes in places that could be seen from the Cor·
nich. Nobody on the Cornich could
help
seeing everyone on the beach.
Since it could neither better the food situation nor cope with the proh·
lem of rising prices, the Petain government made every effort to show its
efficiency in other things. In the whole unoccupied area the police force
was doubled, in Marseille it was tripled. To find jobs for so many new
men was no mean task. In Marseille some of them were assigned to uphold
the authority of the law on the bathing beach.
Completely ignoring the new ruling, the Marseillants stuck to the
habit of shedding their clothes on the shore before diving into the water
and made it plain that they would apply force and violence in the event of
any assault on their liberties. Finding it impossible to break the stiff
resistance of their compatriots, the police devoted their attention to the
refugees, who had no rights. To discriminate however, between real
Frenchmen and undesirable aliens among people in bathing suits and
trunks required a keenness of eye which the cops lacked. The undesirable
aliens, moreover, considered it wise not to break the new ruling for they
knew that for them to violate it implied the danger of being thrown into
prison and of losing all chance of leaving France. The officers of the law,
therefore, were playing a losing game. Often they picked a culprit who
met force with force and told them to go to hell. Discouraged they walked
off to be reassured of their worth by their comrades across the road, to
whom was entrusted the important task of seeing that the Gestapo and the
Italian spies who had taken up quarters in the nearby villas shouldn't
get lost.
It was in the days of unrestricted freedom, before the police appeared
on the beach, that I met the dog, a brown Irish setter, with white and yel·
low spots on his chest. He was chasing the gulls on the beach and barking
at them. I saw at first nothing strange in this, but when the gulls had flown
away I noticed that he ate the algae and crabs and clams that they had left
on the sand. A rather outlandish habit for a dog I thought. My curiosity
was aroused and I decided to study the dog and find out more about him.
Frequent swimming and basking in the sun did me good and I soon
felt the release from the physical and mental strain under which I had
lived for years. A political refugee who shows signs of increased well
being represents a real menace. Sooner or later he's apt to fall into
his
old line of thought again. A short breathing spell in the manhunt
makes
him bold and inclined to say more vigorously than ever that we live in a
rrazy world and niust do something to change it.
Why, he may even become convinced that he is still strong enough
to put up a fight against this crazy world himself.
From these subversive ideas my attention was distracted, however,
by
the interest I took in the dog. This interest led me to the study of a prob–
lem which is considered to be asolutely innocuous, and which has occupied
