It is reported from France that the wellknown Catholic poet and writer, M. Paul Claudel, formerly French Ambassador to the United States, is in safety and is living -Ittietly in the country. He is carrying on pith his commentaries on the Old Testament, the work to which he has dedicated himself since his retirement from diplomatic life. His latest published works before the German occupation were on the book of Judith and the book of Esther.
M. Fiancois Mauriac, a great Catholic novelist, is also safe at present, though his bold line in an article Written for the Catholic daily, La Croix, drew an attack on that paper in the Nazi Press.
With regard to other French Catholic laymen, nothing is known of the whereabouts of M. Daniel-Rops, who was living in Neuilly up to the German occupation, where he taught at a school. Neuilly is the residential suburb of Paris which has been reported commandeered by the Germans for billeting officers.
M. Georges Bernanos, author of the Diary of a Country Priest, and the recently published Star of Satan, is at present in Latin America, where he went before the war, despairing of the French determination• to resist Hitler.