The Tricolor Flies

For the first time since autumn 1939, advertising pages of U.S. magazines bloomed last week with the blue, white & red flag of France above a famed name—French Line. Once one of the proudest of all shippers, employing 50,000, linking a hundred ports, beloved by Americans for its luxury liners and fabulous food, the 89-year-old line and her famed Pier 57 were household names.

World War II set her 79 ships to carrying munitions for the French Government. When France fell, the fleet was immobilized, except for relief ships or food ships from the U.S. to Africa, the West Indies. Then, after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. took over nine of the twelve ships in U.S. ports. Last March a U.S. subsidiary was organized to get the barnacle-gathering ships in action ; many now ply on United Nations business.