Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-08-18 | Page 33 | Police Decorations Numerous in Paris

POLICE DECORATIONS NUMEROUS IN PARIS More Medals for Bravery Worn Than in Any Other City in the World. ' By FRED J. BOLL MEYER, Universal Service Staff Correspondent. PARIS, Aug. 17. Paris now boasts of the most decorated police force in ithe world. There is ecarcely a gendarme In the capital of France who has not one or more medals won for bravery on the "champs de bataille.' Many have two. three or four medals, while some proudly wear the fourragere of the Legion d'Hon-neur. d'Hon-neur. When the war broke" out and there was an urgent need of more officers in the army many Paris gendarmes were commissioned com-missioned because of their splendid training, train-ing, excellent discipline and physical perfection. per-fection. Then as the war wore on the ranks of the rity's police force were filled by men who had been honorably released from the lighting armies on technical grounds or because of some slight wound or physical disqualification, which, while preventing them from doing further service ser-vice at the front, did not bar them from performing duties of the police. The personnel of the force wn-s constantly con-stantly changing In the early days of the ar, new men coming in from the army and gendarmes who had not seen service at the front going out to the army. So now almost all of them have served on the firing lino. And one has only to glance a I the row of ribbons or medals on their chests to know that they crave a good account of themselves when they faced Frit?:. And. furthermore, . many of them have beon cited a number of times for on the croix de guerre, there sener-illv sener-illv are several stars or palm leaves, signifying sig-nifying that number of army or divisional citations.