Down with the Foreign Legion

Swiss Army Minister Paul Chaudet, feeling not at all neutral on the subject, last week addressed a circular letter to Swiss youth, c/o high schools, police stations and army recruiting depots.

"The French Foreign Legion," he wrote, "offers none of the adventurous romance you dream of. It has bitter experience in store for you. You risk your life. You may come out maimed, or ill, or morally weakened. He who enlists in the Legion brings no honor to Switzerland. Each of us has his troubles, but there are other ways of solving them. Talk to a friend, your teacher, your pastor . . . You will then realize that enlistment in the Legion is an act of cowardice."

Swiss diplomats feared that such undiplomatic talk by high officials might ruffle the feelings of the French, but something had to be done. Despite the 1927 edict against Swiss joining foreign armies (except the Papal Guard at the Vatican), between 300 and 500 young Swiss join the Foreign Legion every year.

Two hundred and fifty Swiss were killed in Dienbienphu. A much more suitable alternative, Minister Chaudet advised his landlocked countrymen, is the sea. "The job of a sailor is tough but honorable."

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