Word: french
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Just after World War II broke, several socialite groups sought the patronage of Mme Gamelin, wife of the French Generalissimo, and one, reputedly, received this characteristic note: "My wife excuses herself for being too busy to reply personally to your request that she be honorary president of your organization, and asks me to present her regrets. (Signed) Maurice Gamelin...
...Today almost every French woman has her own personal family war work to do because she has a brother, fiance, husband, father or uncle in the Army who needs cigarets, socks, a sweater, favorite articles of food, regular letters of affectionate encouragement and such efforts as she can make toward attending to his neglected affairs. Thousands of French women are holding their husbands' jobs today as bus conductors, mail carriers, taxi drivers, and in stores and factories...
...typical French soldier's wife was going a bit hungry last week, scrimping to send her man all she possibly could. One Mme Jeanne Durand, who has a job paying $50 monthly and has been sending her husband nothing, was sensationally hauled into court on his demand from the Maginot Line that she be made to live up to the "mutual faithfulness, aid and support" clause in their marriage contract. Setting a legal precedent, the court ordered Mme Durand to pay $2.25 per month toward settling the canteen bill of her drafted husband...
Defense Passive. Such general war work as French women have time for, after doing their own, is attended to by thousands of small committees organized in cities and towns, with no coordinating or super-organization. They do a specific job in a specific place, and their general attitude, emphasized by Eve Curie, is "No publicity and no showing off!" In Paris, for example, the war has thrown many musicians and writers out of work. So there is a small committee, Dejeuners de Lettres et de la Musique, one of whose presidents happens to be Mme Lebrun. It serves an ample...
Windsor, Gould, Vanderbilt. A few swank names there are in French women's war work: the Duchess of Windsor, whose Versailles Colis du Trianon sends familyess French soldiers parcels containing a pullover, two pairs of socks, two handkerchiefs, pencil & paper, cigarets, sweets and box of aspirin; orchidaceous Mrs. Frank Jay Gould, member of a wealthy French women's organization under the patronage of Marshal Joffre's widow which collects money to buy ambulances, last week bought 40; the Duchesse de Caylus, whose Oeuvre des Détresses Cachée tactfully tries to aid needy and unemployed...