FRANCE: A Handful of Guns

In Paris one day last week, at a luncheon meeting designed to promote Franco-American friendship, suave, well-tailored U.S. Ambassador Amory Houghton was greeted by a glaring Frenchman with the wild outcry: "We hate America!"

A few hours earlier, in the predawn darkness, two R.A.F. Hastings transports had put down at a heavily guarded airport near Tunis and disgorged 350 Sterling submachine guns, 70 Bren guns and 42,000 rounds of ammunition. The British planes were followed by two U.S. Air Force transports carrying 500 M-1 rifles and 50,000 rounds of ammunition. Overriding anguished...

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