The article below was published in the daily newspaper Libération, Paris, France, pages 1 and 4, on October 18, 1954.
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It goes on. With its usual unshakable seriousness and its flair for detailed storytelling - yet another example - Agence France-Presse informs us that "mysterious craft" continue their persistent rounds in the skies over France. "The testimonies are piling up," says the dispatch, dated from Paris.
Thus, for the unofficial agency that churns out a nonstop stream of all the conceivable and unimaginable accounts reported from every corner of the country, there is no doubt that the phenomena observed here and there - whether fanciful or sincere - correspond to a material reality: "craft," meaning machines or instruments (see dictionary), secret or unknown. As for the stories themselves, they are "testimonies" that should apparently be taken at face value.
Once again, we'll spare you the accounts ranging from the hairy Martian that two farmers from Livry-sur-Seine mistook for a satyr, to the "interplanetary diver" chased by two dogs in the suburbs of Perpignan, not to mention the disc that, for the first time, showed aggression by scorching six poplar trees near Rovigo, in Italy.
Let's stick to the reports whose sources have been verifiably confirmed, for that matter.
J. DEROGY
Continued on page 4, Col. 1
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Continued from P.1-Col. 8
For the past forty-eight hours, two men from Toulon, Mr. Rappellini, a bar owner, and Mr. Ottaviani, a merchant navy mechanic, have claimed to have seen, on Thursday evening around 6 p.m., at a place called "Le Chemin Long" between Hyères and Toulon, a craft shaped like a disc bulging at the top, resting on the ground on a tripod.
"A man in an asbestos suit was standing next to it," said Mr. Rappellini. "I jokingly asked him if he came from Mars. He shrugged and replied by asking the exact location of where we were. When I told him, he turned around and opened a triangular door. I then asked him if he was heading to the Palyvestre military base. But by then, he had already slammed the door shut. The craft, which had been vibrating continuously, began to vibrate more intensely. There was a sound like steam, similar to when a locomotive stops, and the craft slowly lifted vertically. It reminded me of a woodcock in flight. It hovered for a moment at about 50 meters altitude, then shot off at full speed in the direction of Hyères, leaving behind an orange glow and a noise similar to my espresso machine."
This statement, which Mr. Rappellini made to our Toulon correspondent in the presence of Mr. Ottaviani, was reaffirmed by both men before the Air Intelligence Division, where they were thoroughly questioned. Yesterday morning, investigators from the R.G. (General Intelligence) accompanied them to the site, where they found and photographed a scorched circle of grass, 3 meters in diameter.
Up to that point, there is nothing that sets this testimony apart from dozens of accounts whose fanciful nature has been proven - except for the dialogue between the witnesses and the craft's pilot, and the noise of the machine: tripod, diameter, shape, vertical takeoff, colored trail - it's all there.
But here's where things get complicated: the police confiscated the sketch drawn from memory by the two men and ordered them not to reproduce it, claiming it was a plan of interest to national defense!!!
Even though it's hard to see how a memory sketch of an alleged sighting, drawn by non-specialists, could be considered a blueprint of secret devices - especially when it matches the characteristics of imaginary craft described by debunkers - one question deserves to be asked: If the public authorities are truly taking the "testimony" of these two Toulon men seriously, then they should go all the way and do their duty by exposing the hoax, if there is one. If they remain silent, it means they choose to be complicit in this "saucers" operation, the diversionary nature of which would thereby be proven.
