Return to Paris

There was a great, nostalgic stirring in Paris last week as veteran bureau men of the U.S. press moved happily back into their old offices. Some doubt remained about how many offices would be allowed to reopen, how many correspondents allowed to remain. But newsmen, mostly constitutional sentimentalists, were carried away for the moment by the loyalty of their old French friends and employes.

At 37 rue de Caumartin, the New York Times's Frederick Graham, Gene Currivan and Harold Denny found bureau furniture scattered throughout the building. But some typewriters and the expensive telephone-transmission equipment had been safely hidden.

Whisking and Oiling. Former Paris Managing Editor Eric Hawkins and Correspondent John O'Reilly expected to find a shambles when they reached the New York Herald Tribune's old office at 21 rue de Berri, home of the tourist-loved Paris Herald. Instead they found their bureau's prewar business manager, Renee Brasier, whisking the office into shape and talking plans for future work. Triumphantly she led them to the composing room. "There, cleaning up forms and oiling linotype machines, were mechanical employes of the paper, some of whom had worked for it since 1924."

At shrapnel-scarred 2 rue des Italiens, United Pressmen Henry T. Gorrell, Richard D. McMillan and Ernie Pyle found the Germans had stolen the mahogany desks. But a U.P. employe had hidden the typewriters in his home.

The most heartwarming homecoming of the week was reported by Helen Kirkpatrick of the Chicago Daily News, which also cheered homesick U.S. tourists and expatriates before the war with a Paris edition in English. Of her discoveries at 21 rue de la Paix, she wrote:

"Four years' dust accumulation covers desks, tables and chairs. Piled unopened by the door are June 1940 editions of the Chicago Daily News. They arrived after the staff had left as the Germans were entering Paris.

"The janitor of the building came up to say that the dictaphone recording machine and other equipment were hidden in the basement, together with personal articles that members of the staff had not been able to carry with them on their hurried departure.

"We found the same situation at the apartment of Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Mowrer, 146 rue de l'Universite, where their maid had covered the furniture, hidden the radio and fought off those who had attempted to requisition it. Although the maid had not been paid since 1940, she had come in twice a week to keep the place clean."

True News and Good. For news-starved Parisians, liberation came like a sunburst. Suddenly news that was not only true but good seemed to come from everywhere -- even the telephone. By dialing INF-1, Parisians could hear a recorded summary of world and local news, brought up to date every hour. Underground news papers which had hidden in cellars and garrets came out in the sun. Some pre-conquest papers, including Figaro and Ce Soir, were revived. Many great names of the prewar French press were gone, the papers that had either sold out or submitted to the conqueror: Le Matin, Paris Soir, Le Temps, L'Oeuvre, Le Petit Parisien, forcibly taken over by the Germans, may be revived. But by last week's end Paris had no less than 12 flourishing dailies.

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