Lives Saved Quotes
A few days before the Germans had bombed a few places around Paris. The French President and high officials after stating that they would defend the city against the Nazis ran out of town to the South. Then the city officials all ran including most of the police officers. All the foreign diplomats followed except for Ambassador Bullitt, a close personal friend of President Roosevelt. When he sent this cable, he and his staff had 2 revolvers and 40 bullets and asked FDR to send him some sub-machine guns to help him maintain order in the city. When the Germans arrived, there was not a single Frenchman who tried to stop them. The French Army had already run from the Battlefield outside of Paris. It is this dreadful, cowardly showing of the French which plagued De Gaulle and other French Patriots for years causing a great exaggeration of the extent of the French Resistance which was indeed heroic but only involved few Frenchmen and women. Fortunately, there was almost no looting of civil breakdown and the Germans arrived and took over. Bullitt never had to use his “armaments”.
Many in the House were calling on England to fulfill its treaty obligations and stop Hitler and the Germans from overrunning Europe. Prime Minister Chamberlain, kept trying to appease Hitler by giving in to some of his demands. The more he gave in, the greater the demands became. Maxton was one of the few members of Parliament who wanted to give the Prime Minister more time to avoid war. Chamberlain’s efforts failed miserably and Hitler already had a huge advantage.
