23 AUGUST 1940, Page 5

The English attitude of mind towards the French at the

present time is of exceptional interest. Those whose opinion has always been: " Never trust a Froggy! " are inevitably Wagging their insular tails ; they have always had their stub- born counterparts in France, and their generalisation is directly translatable as: " Perfide Albion! " On the other hand, a French lady who escaped from Bordeaux with her children has told me that she has been astonished by the sympathy, the kindness, and the absence of reproach against her country, that she has everywhere encountered in England. Our common soldier', appear to have smilingly and without bitterness written off the temporary loss of an ally. One of them, whom I sus- pected of being a rather premature veteran, while waiting his turn t darts, was inclined to lecture on the adventure of Dunkn-k. " When / was in France —," he began. His dart-playing companion interrupted him swiftly: " France? " said he. " Never 'eard of such a place." A piece of dialogue wlucl: a dramatist would give his head to have invented.