The article below was published in the daily newspaper La Croix, France, page 1, on October 1, 1954.
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"Flying saucers" that have been regularly reported recently in Austria are, according to the Bild Telegraf, remotely controlled devices used by certain powers to drop anti-communist leaflets over Czechoslovakia.
This newspaper reports that leaflets written in the Czech language were found near Eferding, in Upper Austria (Soviet zone), after the passage of two "luminous discs" whose movements were observed by two gendarmes from a nearby town.
These leaflets, distributed by a group of immigrants belonging to the "Czechoslovak Opposition" movement, invite the farmers of Czechoslovakia to leave agricultural collectives and state cooperatives.
Two other daily newspapers also mention the testimony of several farmers who claim to have seen a "saucer" caught in the beam of a Soviet anti-aircraft searchlight.
"Phenomena" have also occurred in the Netherlands. A citizen from Schiedam (a major center of gin production) reported seeing a fairly large, circular, luminous object moving westward.
Less recent but more impressive is the account of the captain of the Groote Beer, Mr. J.-P. Boshoff, of the Holland–United States line.
The object, detected at sea and observed by him and his five officers using all the ship’s optical equipment, was "about the size of a half-moon" and also circular and luminous.
The captain firmly ruled out the possibility that it could have been a weather balloon.
Initially motionless, the disc then moved westward after a few moments and disappeared behind the clouds at an altitude of about 14,000 meters.
