Chapter 3 - Behind Closed Doors
I was talking to you in the last chapter about the trials and tribulations that France went through for over four years, and I feel that you Guides, who are such sensible thinking people and care about your neighbour nation, will want to know what French people and the Guides there, have had to stand up to, whilst we went through our bitter war time on this side of the Channel.
I know very well what a large proportion of you experienced here, what with first the Battle of Britain, and the raids all over the place, the wicked destruction of homes, the evacuation, and then the flying bombs and later the V Twos. With those, and the bothers of black-out, the lack of transport, coupons for uniforms, queuing for food, and the consequent feeling of irritation and impatience that comes with those worries, life has not been easy. On the top of that so many had such great hardships and sadness, tremendous stress and strain of anxieties and worries, and desperate sorrow to bear.
But our sufferings have been of an entirely different sort from those the people have had to endure in those countries on the continent which were invaded and -occupied by the enemy, for they had every kind of misery brought upon them as well as the unbelievably bitter mortification of defeat.
Except for our plucky little Channel Island,' we here in Great Britain never knew what it was to have the enemy actually in our midst, and those of us who have not been across that narrow little Channel can never know what that sort of suffering is like.
It was absolutely grim and frightful. You need to go and see it and hear about it at first hand from those who were there all the time. Then you begin to understand, and you gain a new and an intense sympathy for those people.
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Do you know what it is to be frightened ? I expect so ; you have had many opportunities to learn during the bomb and blitz years, but you also had breathing space in which to leam to conquer and control that fear between the attacks from the air.
But, in that utterly cruel war there was nothing to save Guides over there from continuous agonising fear of the Gestapo—in
France and Belgium and Poland and all the other occupied
countries. We who have never suffered an enemy occupation can never be thankful enough to God for His protection, for the
geographical position of our island home, nor fully awake enough to what we owe to the indomitable courage and persistent brilliant action of the men of the Royal Air Force who won the Battle of Britain which was the tuming point in the history of the world. Have you ever stopped to think what WOULD have happened to the rest of the world, if Britain had gone down in 1940, as she might have done ?
What did the Guides of France do all through their nightmare years of trial do you think ?
They just went on doing their Guiding, sticking to their work ; they held their meetings in secret, helped the social services of their towns when and where they could, did anything possible for the well-being of their neighbours, and they kept up their brave spirit of defiance and courage.
They even poked fun at their oppressors. I heard of one who risked deportation because when a German soldier pushed against her when getting into the Underground train, she pretended to be using a clothes brush and simulated brushing off the contamination of his having touched her sleeve, glaring at him furiously the while!
And the things they did were very often done at risk of their lives. Out in the country many who had studied map-reading were able to show escaping prisoners the way about, and got them safely away out of danger. They hid people in bams and outhouses, and gave them clothes in which to escape across the frontiers ; and many gave invaluable service in carrying secret documents, giving out true information to circumvent the enemy's lies and propaganda.
They distributed literature, produced ' underground ' to keep up the morale of the nation, conveyed important messages and even played clever ruses on the Germans, finding out about their doings by pretending to be friends, and generally acting and using their wits and their ingenuity in real eamest for the benefit of their
' resistance ' leaders. The Guides were not enrolled in the
Facing this page were these photographs:-
2. Jeanettes in the park of Le Chateau de Sillery near Paris : April, 1945
3. A French Guide about to make a presentation to the Chief Guide
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'resistance ' as a body. Guides don't really take part as a whole Movement in any one single other organisation's activities because Guiding has to be free—it has to let each Guide think things out for herself and decide what is right.
But anyone who wanted to, and was old enough, could join as an individual, and we shall hear later of some thrilling tales of the heroic things they did.
I heard of one Ranger who, for years, took down the talks given by the B.B.C. each evening, and signalled this true information to a secret window in Fresne Prison. Inside someone took all this down, and the poor prisoners, who were only given false news by their German guards, were able to keep their spirits up because the truth was got through to them in this way. Had that Ranger been caught doing it, she would probably have been imprisoned herself, or even possibly have been shot.
I met many Guiders in Paris who had been given medals for such acts of gallantry, but they would not speak of what they had done, for they said that everyone had done things just as bravely as they had, and all had helped their country to withstand the treatment meted out by the conqueror, and to uphold the morale of their own people.
One of the bitterest things to many was the sight of the Nazi flags flying over their public buildings and in their streets, and to have to put away and hide their own national flag, which was not allowed to be flown anywhere.
So the Guides could not have the French flag for their ceremonies. It wasn't even safe to have one at their ' locales ' (which is the French word for the Guides' Club rooms) or other meeting places, to which they went in plain clothes, the wearing of Guide uniforms being forbidden.
But there were many to whom the uniform and the flag meant too much to allow of either being left out for long. A story was told to me about the determined members of one Company who, outwardly, for the benefit of the German Police, pronounced themselves to be a Sports Society.'
They had a special rendezvous, where they could be fairly private and unobserved, and someone mounted guard outside to give warning should anything untoward appear. The Guides, coming from different bye-streets, would assemble there, wearing all types of plain clothes, swathed in coats and mackintoshes.
Once inside, off came the camouflage covering ; complete Guide uniform was undemeath.
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But the carrying of a French flag was too great a risk. No matter. Standing round in their horseshoe formation, the Colour Party falls out ; in dumb show it fetches a Colour that isn't there, and marches to the Flag Staff. The Flag that ISN'T there is tied to the halyard, and, as the eyes of the Company follow it in imagination from the ground slowly upwards, it is hoisted to the top. The Guides in their semi-circle stand in silence thinking, while their eyes, looking up, can see nothing tangible flying from the flag-staff head.
But the symbol and symbolic action is there, and they see so much—so much that matters to them greatly. In their minds are memories of a former day, when life was free in France ; on their lips is a prayer, that she may be liberated soon and rise again to her former greatness ; in their hearts is a new love for their country, and a feverish determination to serve her fully when her freedom comes again.
16 (part)
