1941-07-17 — Page 23

THE CHINA MAIL, JULY 17, 1941.

CHINA MAIL

WINDSOR HOUSE

MARSHAL PETAIN

We are publishing this week a series of articles

on Marshal Petain by Henry Bernstein. The original picture of the marshal spread by his

supporters was that of the old "hero of Verdun," convinced that further resistance would be catas- trophic, fearful that Brit- ain was about to fall, stepping into the awful chaos of defeat to save what was possible, hold the fragments together and with skill and firm- ness restore the spirit of the French nation.

out

*

THE HARBINGERS

The Spirit Of France

ernment,

✡

(And yel, ย

This is the fifth of a series of Germany to a class of people power, he said, was going to be-

articles by the distinguished with anti-Republican sympathies, come invincible. French dramatist, Henry Bern- But while Pétain, uncominunica- that time France had an immense stein, exiled by the Vichy gov- tive and mysterious, waited in army, and Germany had practi-

the background, content to let cally none.) his name be used for strange pur- Laval went on to tell me of an her spirit was destroyed. Without

France was destroyed because poses, Laval was busy.

interview which he had had at Cracovia, the year injustice, I can say that Marshal

before, with In 1936, shortly before the Goering. He was returning from Petain was the symbol of what Popular Front elections--the Russia, where he had signed the we call defeatism. A man of vast Popular Front represented the Franco-Russian pact, and he had ambitions, yet the apostle of in- combined forces of the Com-stopped at Warsaw to attend the action, a French marshal with-munists, the Socialists, and the funeral of Marshal Pilsudski,

faith in France, he taught Radical-Socialists

-- I had Frenchmen to lose faith in them- series

a Goering, he said, told him that an of talks with prominent active Franco-Russian

policy politicians about what was hap- would immediately lead to war. pening in France. I Blum, who was

suw Leon With the same frankness, Laval certain that the said, "I have done everything 1 Popular Front would be success- could to talk with the Germans, peared to be somewhat uneasy. I serve. ful but, who none the less, ap-but they maintain absolute re- They are impenetrable " saw Herriot, who told me that How, I asked, could he hope to Communism in France was not maintain political relations with dangerous but that the insidious neighbours who did not state their growth of Socialism was more to intentions? He shook his head and repeated that France "could not afford" a war with Germany,

selves and in their cause.

Although his popularity in the country at large was limited, he was the idol of the anti-Republi- little they were won over to the can officers and soldiers. Little by

marshal's idea that "The Republic was a rotten regime for which

their lives."

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M. Bernstein's picture] is a very different one. It is that of a man who was in fact no "hero of Ver-! dun"; whose defeatism was apparent as long ago as 1918; who did nothing, despite his high military position, to maintain and prepare the French Army through the post-war years; who was deeply in- volved with the domestic enemies of the French democracy and passive, if not friendly, toward the external menace of Ger- man Nazism; a man, with a large share of respon- sibility for the national weakness he now blames on others, who in the final days slipped, with his de- featism, into high place and there used his in- fluence to complete the paralysis and hand over France to slavery in order to earn power and posi- tion for himself from the German master.

It is a powerful indict-there was no sense in risking ment. Much of it is docu-j Petainism is one of the names be feared. He was alarmed lest mented. Much of it is for the malady which beset his own party, the Radical- France. Petain represented safety corroborated from other

who did not want to those There is, sources.

for fight; he represented peace, or- der, the end of the struggle with example, the article in "Foreign Affairs" by complex as a human per- Pierre Cot, the man whom sonality, and if it were Vichy has tried to blacken solely a matter of Petain as the incompetent radi- the man one might besit- cal responsible for French ate to present it des- Socialists, would be left holding any of the men with whom I had air weakness, revealing pite the corroboration. the bag. I saw Mandel, who was talked. He told me that the Blum that Cabinet would carry out its pro- plans for large-scale ex-personal. Vichy has been triumph. I saw Reynaud. He too gramme too quickly, that the Po- pansion of the air force a consistent wellspring of which his ministry pre- bafflement, confusion and pared in 1937 but which uncertainty in the whole vasion. were unanimously re-problem of democratic Finally, I saw Laval. For a

In the course of our conversa THESE FACTS MAKE jected by the high milit-defence. Misunderstand-year there had been rumours in tion, Laval spoke of England

France that Laval and Petain without hostility, but with re ary committee, including ing of its motives has would seize power-Vichy five or serve. The English attitude in re- Petain, Gamelin and given rise to all sorts of be any elections," Laval's friends "clear" Certainly, Mussolini had six years sooner, "There won't gard to sanctions had not been Darlan. And much of the democratic mistakes, from declared knowingly. Instead, been led to believe that England indictment has been oor- the Dakar fiasco to the there was to be a Cabinet of Pub- and France would not interfere Ilc Safety, headed by Marshal with his activities in North Africa roborated by events - by idea that Vichy might Petain. Six months before, the until Anthony Eden had been- the earnestness with still be used as a centre of rumours had ceased abruptly. The sent from London to set him right. Laval Cabinet unexpectedly re- Laval was hated in England, which Vichy set itself democratic resistance on signed, and both Laval and Mar-where he was openly called from the beginning to root, the Continent.

shal Petain refused to be mem- traitor by some of the Cabinet bers of the Sarraut Cabinet which ministers, and he knew it out every centre of resis- It is important to pre-succeeded it the Cabinet which For some months after the tance, to confuse and des- sent this evidence tending German troops into the Rhine- no further talk of a Fetain-Laval had to face the entrance of the Popular Front elections there was troy every true French to show that the British land

coup; Then come rumours of a hope and to punish every people in coming, as they modest little office on the Champs- the Cagoulards. In July, 1007, When I talked to Laval, in his gigantic conspiracy, the affair of sympathy with Gen. de have done, to the conclu-Elysees, the Rhineland Invasion the Rosselli brothers were assise Gaulle or Britain, by sion that Petain and his was an accomplished fact, I told sinated, their bodles, found in. a. "collaboration" in all its

him I was shocked by the oc-forest near Bagnoles-de-l'Orna; government are little cupation of the Rhinoland, and one of them was a professor who multiple forms, by the more than a Nazi Trojan particularly by the non-resistance had come from Italy, the other a events in Tunis and in horse, as unrepresenta. Laval told me frankly that he be an anti-Fascist.

of the French. To my surprise, resident of France, known to bo

to

By Henry Bernstein

mistaken, and assured me

Popular Front would not

for the first time the two But the matter is not the

At Warsaw, M. Laval had met Marshal Petain, who had also been sent by the government, to repre- sent it at the funeral of Marshal Pilsudski. The two men had at-

It's Fresh from the Farm. It's still Fresh:

tended the funeral services side when you get it.

by side and had returned to Paris together. What did they discuss that night?

On the future of French politics, Laval was more far-seeing than

was mistaken. He predicted that pular Front would become an Une strikes would bring about civil popular Front; and that it would war in less than a year, which in soon dissolve. Then more conser turn would lead to a German in- vative hands would take power...

and would retain the essential re- forms of the Blum Cabinet,

tive of France as Herr loved the Satraut Cabinet had On-September 11, of the same.

sisting the movement of the Ger de Triomphe were demolished by done the right thing in not re- year, two buildings near the Arc, his opinion, to live on good forms quarters of the General Federa man troops, It was necessary, in öxplosions. "Ono was tho hoad-

with the Nazis, at all costs. Their i (Continued on Pago 10).

Syria.

Na such indictment, of Abetz or "the traitor of course, can stand as the Strasbourg," are tragical- final word on anything so ly close to the truth.

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