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> In Unoccupied France, where there are no Germans, there is less hatred of them. In Unoccupied France some hatred of Great Britain remains, both for France's defeat and for the blockade that has brought hunger and suffering. The people of Unoccupied France have put their faith in Marshal Pétain, who seems to stand for a France on French soil, even if it is an impotent France.
> In the colonies and in neutral countries Frenchmen are divided into many groups, of which at least four are significant: those who are pro-Vichy; those who are pro-De Gaulle; those who are more extreme than De Gaulle and who believe in the revolutionary character of the war against Hitler; those who, because their people at home are suffering, would help them even at the cost of nullifying the British blockade. Nowhere has this division of Frenchmen caused such a division of public opinion as it has among U. S. citizens.
U. S. citizens have a traditional love for France, more sentimental than rational. It is based largely on Lafayette and legend. When the French Government of Marshal Pétain asked for an armistice most of these U. S. citizens felt that their sentimental faith had been misplaced. They reacted much as did Poetess Edna St. Vincent Millay in a sonnet entitled The Old Men of Vichy, which ended:
"Only the young, who had so much to give,
Gave France their all; the old whose valorous past
(In anecdote not only: in bronze cast)
Might teach a frightened courage how to live,
Wheedled by knaves, from action fugitive,
Sold their sons' hopes, to make their porridge last."
By last week this emotional reaction had mostly spent itself. But U. S. citizens were still confused about France. Well they might be, for they, like the Frenchmen who had come to live among them, were being pulled this way & that by French pressure groups. One group told them that to help France was to help Germany. Another group said:
"We believe that some consideration should be given to the French requests for food from abroad. We have 16,000,000 French people, in addition to the 3,500,000 foreign refugees of all nationalities. . . . We are seeking more food for all of these. . . . I hope the British will realize that this has nothing to do with the prosecution of the war. I hope the United States Government will also realize this."