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At Marseilles an old Jesuit brother met us off the ship and assisted us with immigration procedures, collecting luggage and transport to the Jesuit house. In the summer of 1947 it was only two years since the end of WWII and one could still see many sunken ships in the harbour, with only masts or funnels poking above the surface. No one had had time to salvage them. Walking through the streets one could see ruined walls and wreckage, creating a desolate effect and reminding one of the horrors of war and of humankind’s need for peace. We stayed two days in Marseilles. On the third day we took the express train to Paris, leaving at 8 a.m. and arriving at 10 p.m.—covering some 800 km in 14 hours (a journey that today takes just 3 hours). A few young Jesuits waited for us at the station and brought us to the Jesuit house at 42 Rue de Grenelle. The next day the three of us went to meet Provincial Bith, who expressed joy at our arrival. He suggested that we first explore Paris, then attend the interprovincial congress he had proposed be organised to explore the issue of how the Society of Jesus could contribute to the objective of world peace. There was a constant flow of Jesuits coming to Paris—on business, for tourism, as immigrants. The father minister looked after all of them and was extremely busy. He told me that he had accommodated over 2,000 Jesuits in 1946. According to the daily number of visitors, he needed to arrange for them all to say mass once a day. He collected no extra fees, but according to the Jesuit rule of Ubi Missa, ibi Mensa, each visitor expected an altar at which to say mass and a table at which to dine. I had lived with French Jesuits for over ten years and was used to their food and drink, but there was an embarrassing moment when, after lunch, a small dish of fruit appeared, including a bunch of grapes. I started to eat them according to the Chinese custom, spitting out the skin and the pips, 17 Tertianship in France (1947–48) 94 The Memoirs of Jin Luxian only to see all around me swallowing them whole. I could not spit, but was also unable to swallow, so could only retain more and more skins and pips in my mouth, such that I could no longer talk to the people next to me and just smiled, waiting with difficulty until the superior rang the bell and read the post-prandial prayer. Then, while the rest of the group proceeded to the chapel for the Adoration, I slipped into the lavatory and was finally able to spit out the contents of my mouth. On arrival in Paris the father minister took Zhu Shude and me to the police station to register, so that we could obtain bread ration coupons. In those days bread was rationed, with each person getting 500 g of black bread (made with maize flour), which was later reduced to 250 g, apart from which we ate potatoes. I thought the cooked food worse than in Shanghai. The United States had launched the Marshall Plan to send agricultural products and other commodities to relieve the famine as well as lend capital and make grants to help with the reconstruction of Europe’s industrial capacity. France considered that accepting charitable donations of food was a national disgrace and initially refused to subscribe to this plan. Meanwhile other countries joined the Marshall Plan and quickly improved their peoples’ living standards, causing their economies to rapidly pick up. When France saw this and realised how long it would take to recover without foreign assistance, she realised her mistake and joined up. The people immediately got white bread and plenty of meat products and France caught up with the other Western European countries. Paris had once been the cultural capital of France and of all Europe, counting among the most beautiful cities in the world. When the Nazis took Paris in WWII, the French army surrendered and the French government announced that it would not defend Paris and retreated so that the German air force would not bomb the city. Thus Paris escaped the destruction that would have ensued had it been subjected to attacks. Similarly, when, later on during China’s civil war, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Beijing to fight to the...

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