For more than a month, Paris nights had been disturbed by mysterious bomb blasts, five of them directed against Communist bookstores and propaganda headquarters. Last week the bomb-throwers blasted the front door and grillwork of the Banque Commerciale pour l'Europe du Nord, used by Moscow for its financial transactions with France, and a known reservoir for Communist Party funds.
Police were in a swivet; accusations flew thick & fast. Screamed the Soviet news agency, Tass: "French fascist groups will stop at nothing." The French Communist press roared that De Gaullists had instigated the bombings.
The night after the bombing of the Red bank,...