Southern France Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 29, 1945, Nice, Alpes Cote D'Azur                                Ii the stars and stripes Magazine july 1945 by Hugh Conway stars and stripes staf writer Brussels Brussels used to be known mainly for Brussels sprouts but that was before visiting gis started calling it the place a Little pocket cabbage would buy a Guy the hottest time in the it May not be the poor mans but it definitely is a citrate and though its not it has that certain but hard to something that the average hardworking Soldier on pass namely women and More also Beaucoup Cognac and for if pans is a gracious Brussels is a rollicking coming out of the Nightmare of total War with verve and an Eye to the incidental Gate its bars and cafes run Ning full it makes the old Barbary coast look something like a sunday schools annual Strawberry festival and Taffy pulling the heart of town is crowded with and the cafes Are crowded with made Moi they Are not so Chic and smart As the sleek bicycle experts of but most of them Are healthy looking flemish who speak pretty fair and Are eager for excitement after the dreary years of the speak Mit me the i understand said a Blu eyed delicately sipping a big Glass of Beer in a cafe on the towns main Boulevard Adolphe she looked about mine age is she for the first i Haf i Jitter Boog Mit the americans every i Haf no steady boy she looked seems so Long was engage to a but he was killed when the War now there Are so few men left she suddenly to Norrow i put an and in the newspaper Lor a handsome but that is to Morrow i put an and in the newspaper and Hokay finding so Many people who speak English comes As something of a Shock to the firs time a random Survey of ten of the most attractive girls passing a sidewalk cafe in a half hour gave the following results spoke percent six girls understood percent three girls no percent she just raised her nose and hurried in most people in Brussels speak flemish and a French that sounds like double talk because of the flemish the City is so cosmopolitan that even the wandering in and Cut of the cafes in put the bite on you in three laying Little printed cards on your one touching Appeal was printed in flemish and French on the Back of the but All the mendicant collected in the place was his cards and some if you dont mind being pestered by worn out you can get pretty Good meals for 100 or 200 in said the waiter we have no Steak but perhaps you would care for some Ham and eggs or maybe youd like some roast beef the Chicken is also very Good or How Brussels manages to have such a Supply of food when other big like have so remains a its probably because Belgium offered far less resistance to Germany and so escaped the pasting that France at any the Black Market is liquor is Little boys sell eggs and Sand Wiches in the vegetable stores offer chilled strawberries and luscious red and ice Cream shops Are every walk into one of the ice Brearn with its modernistic lighting and its variety of Frappe and its phonograph blasting and youd think you were in a Swank ice Cream Shoppe on fifth for that walk into one of the smarter cafes and you find yourself Back in the parcels merry in the Rue do is typical of the better theres no cover such a thing is almost unheard of in the belgian Cognac is 60 francs for a big theres a handkerchief sized dance a band that would not be out of place on 52d and a Platinum blonde who sings the latest american even the owners Alibi on slow nights sounds like not much of a crowd said you things always ease up in the where did i learn How to talk with a new York accent i had a place like this for years on 45th even cafes no bigger than Telephone Booths have commission also or in the Center of music and giggles blast at you from every open theres a Rush and a Bustle to people swarm around the main streets and big Cream coloured trolley cars race along with Speed demons at the sometimes the trolleys Are in trains of five and six they never seem to the Best you apparently can Hope for is that they will slow Down so you can hop on or jump getting into Brussels is a its strictly off limits unless a go has a special pass to visit the it also seems to be a Mecca Tor the combination of the two has maps checking up asking a million this probably has had the effect of helping keep prices considerably below the Paris particularly since the town is loaded Down with British who cant afford to be As Quick with a Buck As a at there Are enough americans to make the mommies financially Treyve even got a Little chant that they sometimes Call out when sidewalk bargain ing comes up now its Wholl bid 500 look out its up to 600 sold America no to underneath All glitter and laughter of is a Seething political problem whats with King Leopold Iii you see signs scrawled on lamp posts and buildings and some demand abdication others cheer Vive Leopold Many Are in which will not be reproduced since its hard enough to pronounce the much less spell it is difficult for a visitor to find out what the trouble is since even the natives seem to be some dont like the King but Are afraid that if he quits the country will go completely com others think that having Leopold for King is a few even say that Leopold is unpopular because people dont like his second and bring up All sorts of complicated arguments about balloons and perhaps the most upset of All Are the owners of establishments named after the and they Are grocery it will Cost them a Fortune in new electric signs if the King one hotel owner is All no matter which Way the King jumps k he it is now my House is called hotel Leopold if abdication i just name it after the Kings Uncle and Call it hotel Leopold and that the citrate Hussy called by Elias Mcquaid stars and stripes Staj writer Tom inventor of the Petroleum fire is a Gray haired six footer who can say goddammit in appropriately warlike and frequently but Tom who was a peaceful Farmer Long before the expects to be a peaceful Farmer Long after the and even his fire considered by Many As the most terrifying of the Sears is in Europe to help in the rehabilitation of european at the same typical of a Man who revels in performing a dozen things at Campbell will con a Man accustomed to doing big tilings is now tackling the vets employment problem Thomas Tine a task he began three years sounding out i Joe on his peacetime Job the colonel likes to be called a but it is a mistake to envision him As the Straw chewing Boss of 100 acres of Corn and a Chicken it happens that he is the worlds second greatest president of the Campbell fanning a Spraw Ling Enterprise of acres in the size of his the extent of its mechanization and his own Many contributions to agricultural prompted time Magazine to tag Camp Bell the Henry Ford of Only one other farm in the world reportedly is bigger than and that one is ten times its the Geganti giant farm in but Tom Campbell had a hand in too helped mechanize it while serv ing As an agricultural consultant to the soviet Dur ing the first five year it is another example of the big jobs Campbell does so it was because of the colonels penchant for doing things on a grand scale that president Roose velt entrusted him with a mighty big problem jobs for i Joes after the the task took him on a three year tour among frontline soldiers from North Africa to the Ledo after correlating the desires of the soldiers with whom he talked with what the planners Are doing Back the colonel int the slightest bit worried Over the Job Hunting there will be plenty of he what does concern is the Loose talk by people who imagine what the Soldier wants and the harebrained plans to satisfy the colonels comment on such proposals is Pithy this idea that a i has to be oriented is unfair to the Goddam Mit in All my talks with Ive talked with them around a tank to North in the mud and rain while waiting to go Over the in the Jungles of never met one who needed and Ive never met one who said he wanted a goddammit what the i what he certainly will the Chance to Mike a Good and to Lead a Normal that what he has fought that what he has the colonels sweeping statements May not be quite As Bland As they nor does he intend that they should be interpreted As painting a Roseate in which All veterans will have soft jobs with fat the future colonel Campbell envisions is a pioneering one of hard a future in which i Joe can utilize the skills Learned in the one of the reasons colonel Campbell is in Europe now is to find out for the sur plus property Board How much surplus army equipment the i intends to buy after the he advocates and he he will see to it that Congress advocates too that As much army equip ment As possible is made available to Vete rans at the lowest possible in the pioneering eyes of colonel who was born and reared in a log Cabin in North the combination of the i Bill of rights and surplus army equipment a part of the raw is the colonel believes that possibly of men who have served to Gether in the same Are one of the big answers to postwar he Points out that a group of using their individual right to borrow under the i Bill of can raise sufficient Money to set themselves up in almost any kind of the colonel Doest recommend any speculative ventures for other than the hardier men having a flair for taking a Chance and a determination to for the he is convinced that there will be ample Opportunity in established Industry and in Large scale projects planned by the there is sincerity and an intense desire on the part of both government and Industry to give the gis useful and gainful he the colonel gets hot under the Collar when he contemplates All the jobs that loom in the postwar he groceries and garages have been abandoned during he War agricultural equipment has deteriorated and must be repaired or thousands of filling stations and Wayside eating places Are waiting to be i have no sympathy for people who Are gloomy the although heartily in favor of the i Bill of which he finds very Gener Ous and colonel Campbell would Amend its provisions so that wives and mothers of servicemen could obtain the government Loans in Advance of the servicemen in this they could buy the invest in the or finance whatever other Enterprise the Soldier has in mind so that it could be a going at an accomplished by the time he gets e colonel is so absorbed in the Ina pediment to peace that he is reluctant to talk right now of his famous and horrifying Petroleum fire says that so Many will be dumped on Japan that the country will be turned into one vast Ash but Tom Doest gloat Over he is primarily a Man of like As if Hirohito elects to fight on till Japan is turned into an Ash Tom Campbell May be Over there sometime after the teaching what few japs Are left How Best to turn the charred soil into profitable