This article was published in the daily newspaper France Soir, Paris, France, on July 8, 1947.
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(From our permanent correspondent G.H. MARTIN)
NEW YORK, July 7 (via teletype)
Currently in the United States, there is either the most fabulous phenomenon of collective hallucination of all times, or a foretaste of the emotions which will shake the country when the popular opinion gets for the first time the certainty that the Russians have seismic projectiles. Scientists speak learnedly about "optical illusions", but frankly nobody believes that they can be illusions.
Mysterious "flying saucers" which, for twelve days, have furrowed the American sky, had seemingly populated the air with fantastic "flying [?]", if one believes the accounts of the eyewitnesses collected today in the area of the North-West of the United States. The first "flying plates" have also been announced in the Canadian sky. For three days, the entire America has gone with [?] [?] towards the [?], observing the outer space with the hope to locate one of these unexplainable objects [?] the large ones with above the horizon.
The American army formally denies to have any plane or projectile-rocket which can explain the presence of these "flying plates" on the North-American continent. The Army admits that the phenomenon was announced too frequently during the last days to authorize the military authorities to discard them. Therefore six military interceptors flew all of the day yesterday in the State of Oregon. Their pilots had received the order to watch for these "plates." On the military airport of Oakland, California, a rocket, one of the fastest of the world, is ready to fly away in order to rush in pursuit of the plates, if their presence were to be suddenly announced in the surroundings of this aeronautical base, located close to the Bay of San Francisco. All the military aircraft are equipped with photographic apparatus in order to film these phenomena, but no profitable catch was announced up to now. A report came from Spokane (State of Washington) according to which eight "aerial discs" had been seen, each one the size of a five room house, flying at a speed from 500 to 1500 kmh, and at an altitude of [1800?] meters, landing literally in front of ten reliable witnesses, at the edge of the river [?] in the state of Idaho. According to the witness, Mrs. Walter, the "flying saucers" fell like leaves falling from a tree, but none could be found once on the ground.
A sales representative in a plane [??] [????] of the town of Sioux, in the State of Idaho, was the first to observe the "flying discs," which, since then, were observed repeatedly in various areas. [?], this sales representative [...illegible]
