PETAIN'S ESCAPE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 299, 30 April 1941, Page 7

PETAIN'S ESCAPE

KIDNAPPING PLOT WOMAN'S NIGHT MISSION A young Frenchwoman, travelling through the German lines from Paris to Vichy with her baby and a maid', carried to the Vichy Government last December a coded message which brought' about Laval's downfall, cabled! Harold 1 Cordozo to the Daily Mail from Madrid. The message was i'rom the Paris Prefect of Police, M. Longeron, to \l. Pcyrouton. then Minis tea* of the Interior. It disclosed: the whole of Laval's plot to "kidnap" Marshal Petain when he made his ceremonial visit to Paris and Versailles on Sunday, December 15. Details of tliei plot were received, by Mr Langeron -it the Paris Prefecture late at night on. the Wednesday beiforc the visit. It was impossible to warn Vichy by telephone, because, all messages were tapped by the Germans, Coded telegrams were forbidden. Young Woman's Task. M. Langeron remembered! the young wife of a French start' colonel who had asked him to help her to return to her husband in Vichy. Late on the Thursday lie sent for the young wife. He told her: "I will give you my. own car to go- to Viehv, but you must start immediately and travel through the r.ight. "You must take this envelope, which on no account the Germans must see, and hand it, at no matter what hour, to M. Pcyrouton, Minister of the Interior. "The document is in cipher. If you have to destroy it, tell M. Peytouton from me urgently that Marshal Petain must not come to Paris on Sunday." The young wife hid the envelope in her baby's long dress and passed safely through, the German lines. Self-Convicting Reply. She handed the document to M. Pcyrouton on the Friday morning. The Minister, with the details- of die plot in his possession, pub to Lava! at the full council the dramatic question: "To what body of guards have you entrusted the safety of Marshal Petain during his visit to Paris and Versailles?" Laval's stammered reply was so self-convicting that the council rose in confusion as Marshal Petain signed the order, already prepared by M. Pcyrouton, dismissing the Vice-Premier and ordering his immediate detention by a captain's detachment of the Mobile Guard, which was already waiting. M. Langeron's part in the affair was discovered, and lie was dismissed as Paris Chief cf Police by the Germans. He has sincc be,Jn dotained.