WRUL WORKS TO HELP FRENCH TO RESIST PRESSURE OF LAVAL

From his work on a Medieval art thesis at Harvard, to the job of the French voice of WRUL, is the saga of William Tyler, program director of that station's broadcasts to the French people, "through the walls of the Nazi prison."

Born in Paris, Tyler has spent much of his life in Europe, where, he says, he acquired his acute understanding of the French mind. As he himself puts it, "It is necessary to know more than the American point of view to be able to speak to Europe in these times."

These broadcasts in French, Tyler asserts, constitute only a part, but a very important one, of WRUL's total activity, which includes programs in over 20 languages. Explaining the significance of these French broadcasts, Tyler stated they are playing a vital role in giving moral support to the French people, which they need, especially since the rise of Laval, to resist the German propaganda and blackmail by which the Nazis have been trying to force French collaboration. In a broadcast last Sunday, for example. Tyler exhorted the French people to ignore the "Gaulieter Laval" and assured them that the Allies were continuing to carry the war to the enemy.

American Assurances Needed

Tyler stressed the fact that no matter how courageous the physical and spiritual resistance of the people, it must be nourished by assurances from America that we appreciate the Frenchman's problems, and will spare nothing to beat the Nazis.

The French programs by WRUL were begun during the "phoney war" of 1939. Tyler states, but it was not until the defeat of France that a team of six Harvard French instructors, including Howard C. Rice, Edward D. Sullivan, Robert J. Clements, George L Picard, William N. Locke, and Georges Dumontet, played one of the most important parts in the success of WRUL.

"In fact," Tyler said, "the genesis and development of the broadcasts to France rested largely with this group of Harvard volunteers, so that if may be truly said that the voice of WRUL reached France through men of Harvard. And what is perhaps even more important, the response to these early broadcasts was tremendous, proving that the bond thus formed between America and France was a potent one, helping to convince the French people of our sympathy and our confidence in their spirits."