THEY MAKE, POOR SLAVES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 75, 8 July 1942, Page 6

THEY MAKE, POOR SLAVES

SPIRIT OF FREEDOM LIVES IN

FRANCE

PROBLEM SET FOR THE NAZIS

The spirit of freedom lives in Franco. Vichy has officially laid aside liberte, Egalite, Fratcrnite, but the meaning behind the words persists in the thoughts of Frenchmen. The Riom trials have made it clear. Marshal Petain's decision to suspend the trials —probably for good—follows Hitler's own attack on them, states the Christian Science Monitor of April 2. We cannot safely jump to conclusions about Vichy's or Berlin's purposes. But there is reason to believe Hitler supposed Frenchmen could be made to confess that they were guilty of start-i ing a war Avith him. That would have made useful propaganda, particularly among Germans who didn't want to fight. Petain apparently hopes that the trials would discredit the democratic leaders of France and show that they were responsible for defeat. That would have strengthened authoritarianism in France. Regime Indicted But the whole proceedings at Riom backfired. Leon Blum and Edouard Daladier proved to be Frenchmen. They boldly indicted the court and the whole Petain regime. The judges themselves turned out to be Frenchmen. They permitted the accused to speak as il' the Nazis were the enemy, and to show that the Petainists, military traditionalists, and Fas-cist-minded arms manufacturers were very largely to blame for disunity and military defeat. The hearings were tending to place Berlin and Vichy on trial. It may be that the Lavals and Darlans, if not Hit-. ler, are pleased enough to see Petain discredited. It is even possible that Vichy is undisturbed by the failure of Riom to show that France provoked war with Germany. It must be remembered that Vichy still is not Berlin—or even Paris. But neither Hitler nor Petain can tolerate the "unreconstructed" spirit of democratic defiance developed in the proceedings. It does not fit with either's concept of a new order. Hitler Thwarted It is this "grassroots' 1 ' sense of independence and freedom which has kept Hitler' from selling all of France. Instinctively Petain has at times leaned on it when pressed by Berlin, but he cannot really represent it or evoke at. With all Jjieir failings, and standing' in the prisoner's dock at Ilicin, Daladier and Blum were truer to the French spirit. 'J hi.' most vital evidence in the trial was the proof that that spirit lives and does to speak. Friends of France and friends nf freedom must seek, with understanding, wisdom and courage, to iced il.