THE "TEMPER OF EUROPE" SIR,—I am afraid "A. B. C."
has misunderstood my use of the phrase "bad citizens," although I put it in inverted commas to emphasise that it had a special significance. As a matter of fact, the phrase is not mine, but was used to me by a prominent leader of French resistance (when discussing the problems of liberation some months before it happened) to characterise the life of active resisters among the young.
What I wanted to convey was that successful and determined resist- ance means, while leading an apparently normal life, evasion, disobedience of regulations, destruction and falsification of documents, smuggling, theft, sabotage, etc.,—in fact, all the attributes of an anti-social existence. Years of enemy occupation have made all this second nature—a very heavy psychological burden for the young who did not reach the age of responsibility under any other conditions.—Yours faithfully,
VIATOR.
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