The article below was published in the daily newspaper Le Berry Républicain, France, pages 1 and 10, on October 17, 1954.
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Marcel DEVOS
There is not just one mystery in this gentle country of France. Without even mentioning that of the "leaks" [a spy case reported in the newspapers], there is the unknown - or the unknown thing - of the flying saucers. But there is also another one, no less impenetrable for being less well known.
Has it ever happened to you, by chance, to be seized by a sudden urge in the middle of a stroll and, as a consequence, to sit down at the terrace of one of those establishments traditionally called a coffee shop? On the terrace, or inside, it matters little, for the result is the same...
You drink - if you wish. Then you pay - necessarily. Then you leave a "tip" so that the waiter in turn may drink to your health. Spontaneously...
Spontaneously? Not always. There are laws of propriety. You therefore give the man who served you a gratuity which logic would have proportional to your generosity and which custom, if not written law, requires to be proportional to the amount of your bill. And if, for lack of small change or in order to conduct some interesting psychological experiment, you offer him less than 10% or preferably 12%, you are entitled, as a bonus, to a proper scene - or at the very least, to a disapproving eyebrow that will inevitably fill you with the shame reserved for boors, spoilsports, misers, skinflints, stingy fellows, ill-mannered people, and all other unsociable beings.
Read the rest on PAGE TEN
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Continued from the FRONT PAGE
Avignon, October 15. -- Yesterday, at the beginning of the afternoon, at 1:30 p.m., the population of Fontaine-de-Vaucluse was in a state of excitement.
Indeed, a "white disc" was slowly hovering above the small town; it could be clearly distinguished with good binoculars.
This white disc was topped by a spherical dome of the same color. The inner circular rim intermittently carried two powerful lights varying from white to violet, passing through red.
The Caritat air base (Vaucluse), alerted, immediately dispatched two jet aircraft which soon appeared and, after making two turns over Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, climbed and dived toward the "disc."
The radio installed aboard the aircraft, which was in communication with the base, announced that the craft was in sight, that it was being pursued, but that it was escaping because its speed was greater than theirs.
From Vaucluse one could clearly see the disc shooting away like an arrow, pursued by the two jet aircraft.
Paris, October 13. -- The State Secretariat for Air communicates:
"Contrary to what certain daily newspapers announced this morning, the State Secretariat for the Armed Forces (Air) wishes to clarify that the two pilots from the Orange base who flew at different altitudes over Fontaine-de-Vaucluse on the afternoon of October 14 observed no unknown craft during their search.
The two pilots are experienced officers and their report is categorical.
CASABLANCA. -- The daily "Maroc-Presse" of Casablanca announces that an engineer from Meknès who was driving to Port-Lyautey stated that he was stopped yesterday afternoon on the road, in the Mamora forest, by a man dressed in a shiny suit.
This man, who was about 1.20 m tall, then headed toward a craft stopped on the right side of the road. As soon as he took his place inside, the craft took off and disappeared at great speed.
TOULOUSE. -- Mr. Roger Ramond, municipal councilor in Vielmur-sur-Agout (Tarn), stated that he saw yesterday, at 11:30 p.m., a craft shaped like an elongated balloon about 2 to 3 meters long and 1 to 1.5 meters high, orange in color. The light emitted by this object very clearly illuminated, within a radius of 20 meters, the stumps of the surrounding vines. This apparition lasted until 2:15 a.m., then it slowly rose vertically to about twenty meters above the ground and finally disappeared like a flash without leaving any trail.
NIMES. -- Two people saw, last night while returning home a few kilometers north of Nîmes, a greenish glow in a field. They approached and noticed the presence of a craft identical in every respect to a rugby ball and appearing to rest on supports. The strange device suddenly rose into the air emitting a faint noise and gradually taking on an orange color.
GRAULHET. -- A leather dresser from Graulhet stated that yesterday, late in the afternoon, he saw at high altitude a silvery craft heading northwest which he first took for a jet airplane. But seeing no condensation trail, the leather dresser fetched a pair of binoculars and distinctly saw a large flexible disc that undulated upon itself while moving at great speed.
At that moment the craft seemed to explode in mid-flight. A silvery sphere about one meter in diameter escaped from the mass and, continuing its course, soon disappeared from sight while the rest of the craft fell in several pieces, resembling sheets of various sizes that glided through the sky, some of which caught on telegraph wires.
About fifteen people testified to this unusual case and traces of material were collected. They appear in the form of agglomerated silvery filaments which crumble when touched.
London, October 13. -- A 23-year-old Englishwoman living in Southend, at the mouth of the Thames, declared that she saw a flying cylinder that had landed on a road crossing a park in that city.
According to "The Evening News," the young woman encountered late last night on her path this metallic cylinder about four meters high and three meters in diameter. A tube the size of a human body was fixed to the exterior. It had neither wheels nor legs, and a vague silvery glow seemed to come from inside.
The young woman fled and, when she turned back after having run about a hundred meters, the cylinder had disappeared without a sound.
Bangkok, October 15. -- Hundreds of people saw a flying saucer late in the afternoon in Bangkok.
While the Siamese, without losing any of their serenity and oriental skepticism, amusedly contemplated the sky dotted with white cumulus clouds, the Europeans, very excited, pointed to a sparkling disc, apparently about one third the diameter of the full moon, which seemed to be crossed by a wave gradually increasing across its surface from left to right, exactly like certain neon advertising panels.
The saucer, after slowly drifting from north to south for about a quarter of an hour, disappeared.
Moreover, a Thai weekly reported this week "multiple appearances of flying saucers above the borders of Siam and Burma." Some of these craft are said to have landed in the jungle.
Finally, according to the same weekly, a mysterious ray allegedly carbonized several villagers.
