For what more delicate gesture could an airman conceive than
to risk his life in dropping the flag of France upon the Arc de Triomphe? I like to feel that this story has been read by every French exile, and that the whisper of it has spread mirth and wonder throughout occupied France. Assuredly this dramatic act will not be wasted ; there was something more significant and important in the flight than anything that the R.A.F. themselves might call " shooting a line " ; to us it seems a gay piece of daring ; to the French it will mean more than this, for they understand to the full the meaning of the word "panache." This, so he informed us, was Flight-Lieutenant Gatward's first visit to Paris ; it lasted only six minutes. I share his hope that at some future date he will be able to revisit the scenes of his exploit with "his two feet upon , the ground." The windows of the Ministry of Marine which he shattered will by then have been repaired, and the learely house which Gabriel built will have returned to its lawful owners. He will be able to see from the ground the Orangery in the Tuileries Gardens, the sole remnant of the former palace, which in those fantastic minutes he photographed excitedly before wheeling to swoop upon the Place de la Concorde. And the streets, which seemed to him so tragically denuded, will once again echo to the traffic of the finest city in the world.
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