1941-07-17 — Page 7

Asufficient quantity

of MILK daily is

of

necessary for the maintenance health & energy

DAIRY

FARM

MILK

is milk in its most

beneficial form

THE

01

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

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

content to the background,

let cally none.) ernment.

his name be used for strange pur-

poses, Laval was busy.

10

**

Laval went on to tell me of an interview which he had had at Cracovia, the year before, with In 1936, shortly before the Goering. He was returning from elections-the Russia, where he had signed the

France was destroyed because her spirit was destroyed. Without injustice, I can say that Marshal Pelain was the symbol of what Popular

Frenchmen to lose faith in them-

Front

we call defentism. A man of vest | Popular Front represented the Franco-Russian-pact, and he had combined forces of the Com-stopped at Warsaw to attend the ambitions, yet the apostle of in-

of Marshal Pilsudski, action, a French marshal with- munists, the Socialists, and the funeral

I had taught Radical-Socialists faith in France, he out

"Goering, he said, told him that an of talks with series

Franco-Russian prominent active

policy to war. selves and in their cause.

politicians about what was hap- would immediately lead

saw Leon With the same frankness, Laval Although his popularity in the pening in France. I

certain that the said, "I have done everything i country at large was limited, he Blum, who was

could to talk with the Germans, absolute re- was the idol of the anti-Republi- Popular Front would be success- can officers and soldiers. Little by ful but, who none the less, ap- but they maintain

impenetrable. little they were won over to the peared to be somewhat uneasy,

How, I asked, could he hope to marshal's idea that "The Republic saw Herriot, who

for which Communism in France was not maintain political relations with was a rotten regine

risking dangerous but that the insidious neighbours who did not state their no sense in there was

growth of Socialism was more to intentions? He shook his head and their lives,"

be feared.

He was alarmed lest repeated that France "could not Petainism is one of the names

Radical-afford" a war with Germany. the

own party, the which beset his malady for France. Petain represented safety to who did not want to those

serve. They ure told me that

By Henry Bernstein

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- tended the funeral services side by side and had 'returned to Paris together. What did they discuss

It is a powerful indict- ment. Much of it is docu- mented. Much of it is corroborated from other sources. There is, for fight; he represented peace, or- example, the article in der, the end of the struggle with "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 hesit- cal responsible for French ate to present it des- Socialists, would be left holding any of the men with whom I had the bag. I saw Mandel, who was talked. He told me that the Blum air weakness, revealing pite the corroboration. mistaken, and assured me that Cabinet would carry out its pro-

for the first time the two But the matter is not the plans for large-scale ex-personal. Vichy has been 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 democratic were unanimously re- problem of

that night?

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

Popular Front would not triumph. I saw Reynaud. He too gramme too quickly, that the Po- was mistaken. He predicted that pular Front would become an Un- popular Front, and that it would] about civil

soon dissolve, Then more conser- strikes would bring war in less than a year, which invative hands would take power turn would lead to a German in- and would retain the essential re-

forms of the Blum Cabinet, vasion.

Finally,

For a I saw Laval.

In the course of our conversaTM

of England} France

jected by the high milit- defence. Misunderstand-year there had been rumours in tion, Laval spoke

that Laval and Petain without hostility, but" with/re=]}

ary committee, including ing of its motives has would seize power-Vichy Ave or serve. The English attitude in re- six years sooner. "There won't gard to sanctions had not been Petain, Gamelin and given rise to all sorts of be any elections," Laval's friends "clear.". Certainly, Mussolini had knowingly. Instead, been led to believe that England' Darlari. And much of the democratic mistakes, from declared indictment has been cor- the Dakar fiasco to the there was to be a Cabinet of Pub- and France would not interfere lic Safety, headed by Marshal with his activities in North Africa before, the until Anthony Eden had been roborated by events - by idea that Vichy might Petain. Six months 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 a shal Petain refused to be mem- traitor by some of the Cabinet from the beginning to root; the Continent.

bers of the Sarraut Cabinet which ministers, and he knew it. succeeded it-the Cabinet which For some months after the out every centre of resis-

It is important to pre-sce the entrance of the Popular Front elections, there was tance, to confuse and des- sent this evidence tending German troops into the Rhine- no further talk of a 'Petuin-Laval troy every true French to show that the British land.

When I talked to Laval, in his gigantic conspiracy, the affair of hope and to punish every people in coming, as they modest little office on the Champs- the "Cagoulards. In July, 1937, sympathy with Gen. dej have done, to the conclu-Elysees, the Rhineland invasion the Rosselll brothers were assas Gaulle or Britain, by sion that Petain and his was an accomplished fact. I told sinated, their bodies found in a him I was shocked by the oc-forest near Bagnoles-de-l'Orne; "Collaboration" in all its government are little cupation of the Rhineland, and one of them was a professor who particularly by the non-resistance had come from Italy, the other a multiple forms, by the more than a Nazi Trojan the French. To my surprise, resident of France, known to be events in Tunis and in horse, as unrepresenta Laval told me frankly that he be an anti-Fascist.

loved the Sarraut Cabinet had On September 11, of the same Syria

coup. Then came rumours of a

tive of France as Herr done the right thing in not re- year, two buildings near the Arc No such indictment, of Abetz or "the traitor of sisting the movement of the Gor de Triomphe were demolished by course, can stand as the Strasbourg," are tragical-man troops. It was necessary, in explosions. One was the head

his opinion, to live on good terms quarters of the General Federa- with the Nazis, at all costs. Their (Continued on Papo 10) final word on anything so ly close to the truth.

It's Fresh from the Farm. It's sull Fresh when you get it:

Pasteurised.

Certified T. B. Free. Every bottle individual. ly sealed.

THESE FACTS MAKE

DAIRY FARM MILK

WHAT IT IS

THE FINEST

& SAFEST IN HONG KONG