TRIAL OF PETAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 20, 24 July 1945, Page 5

TRIAL OF PETAIN

Stormy Opening

ACCUSED PROTESTS HIS INNOCENCE

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.)

Rec. 11 a.m.

LONDON, July 23.

"The inauguration of Marshal Petain's personal rule was the final realisation of a long-prepared plot against the Republican Regime in France," declared M. Andre Mornet, the 80-year-old Prosecutor, when the aged chief of the French State during the German occupation faced his judges on a charge of treason in the small courtroom of the Palais de Justice, Paris, this morning.

When the indictment was read Petain rose and protested his innocence. "While General de Gaulle was fighting for France outside the country, I was fighting inside France to prepare for victory," declared Petain. "I have always fought France's enemies. It was the French people who gave me whatever power I had.

' "This court does not represent the French people. It has not ib'een appointed or elected by the Assembly. I have never led a dictatorship. ' I ask France not to forget what I did in 1916. ■ I did not awant power. Everyone asked me to assume power. I thought at jthat time that an armistice was indispensable to save France. The compelled me, against my will and against my feelings, to jsay things and accomplish things which caused me greater suffering -than they caused you. .*

"I know that millions of Frenchjmen are thinking of me, who gave (them confidence, and that they have jremained loyal to me," said Petain. '"For them, as for many others •(throughout the world, I represent a tradition of French and Christian (civilisation confronting excesses of all jtyrannies.

"My life matters little. If you .condemn me, let that be the last, and let no other Frenchman be condemned as a prisoner for having obeyed orders from his lawful chief. I say before the whole world that you would be sentencing ah innocent man, although you belieye you spoke in the name of justice. It would be an innocent man who would carry the burden—because a Marshal of France asks mercy frpm nobody. Your judgment will be answered by God and by posterity. These will suffice for my conscience and tor my memory. I leave it to France.'

Petain grim-faced. As soon as the Judges • were seated, the clerk called out in a loud voice: "The accused, Petain, rise." M. Mornet, who is stated to have been preparing for the trial for more than five years, then began, to read the indictment, charging Petain with betrayal of France and intelligence with the enemy. The trial was adjourned. The Court was crowded soon after 11 a.m. Detectives were posted discreetly in every part ,of the room. Hundreds of armed gendarmes formed a solid ring immediately around the Palais, and others commanded corners hundreds of yards away. Marked interest is being evinced in the trial in London, where it' is properly counted as one of many strange events of a strange era. It is pointed out that a Marshal of France is a great personage, perhaps the greatest of all in a country like France, where the army, more than any. other national institution, has seemed to symbolise the whole genius of the French people. The "Daily Telegraph" sums up British feeling when it says: "The necessity for trying him is as regretta'fele T-tb :i:iMOst-- sFrenchmieifc#as-'>to'r--the friends of France in Britain, who all hope the proceedings will be calm, dignified, and dispassionate."

When there were frequent interruptions from the body of the Court. M.. Mornet declared, "There are too many iGermans in this court-room.1; This -resulted in a wild scene which presented Petain from continuing. There -were jeers and cat-calls, whereupon the Bench ordered the Court to be ,cleared and armed police began making arrests among the spectators. Black-robed lawyers struggled with ithe police to enter the court-room and ,'effect the release of those arrested. •The police then arrested the lawyers <who had protested, but they maintained •that they were immune within the ,'court-room and refused to leave unless -.they were given an assurance that they -would not be arrested. ' The guards, at the outset. of the ■melee, immediately hustled Petain out, ,'overturning tables and chairs m their ihurry. Bedlam prevailed for a period, with spectators furiously waving invitation cards under the noses o± police •who were trying to eject them, and newspapermen, court officials, and •witnesses clambering on to chairs and tables, and even onto the Judges' Bench, ■to watch the scuffle. Order was restored within' 25 minutes. - ■ Petain said, in conclusion: "I did treat with the enemy; it was to spare you. I surrendered nothing that was essential to the enemy, although we had daggers at our throats." Petain said he would have nothing more to say during the trial. Petain's refusal to answer questions was something in the nature of throwing a spanner into the machinery of the High Court procedure. It prevented the Judges proceeding with the interrogatory which is an essential part of any French trial and which normally precedes the hearing of witnesses, and M. Reynaud therefore took the witness stand unexpectedly early. . REYNAUD'S ! EVIDENCE. "If there is an accused in this case, there is also* a victim —France," said Eeynaud. Both Weygand and Petain, he said, entered the Petain Govern-: ment knowing of the,existence of an Anglo-French agreement not to sign a separate armistice. Weygand's plan could not be carried out because the British Army had retired 25 miles. The fyichy propaganda for four years thereafter claimed that Britain had betrayed France. "This allegation is not worth more than most other Vichy allegations," he declared. "I advise .critics to go slow and await the verdict of history, for there was the fact that the German panzers were running ahead beyond Saint Quentin. To my surprise, I found that Petain and Weygand together were urging an ' armistice, and when I wanted to prepare for war from North Africa the General Staff had nothing, but objections. Weygand's idea was to preserve the army with a view to preserving order in France." Reynaud branded Petain as a traitor. "The facts prove that Petain took part In a plot/ he said. "When he took power I despised him; today I pity him. I made the mistake of thinking Petain and-Weygand would put patriotism before political passions and ambitions. All France made this mistake, but I was the chief, and therefore I was responsible. "There were no grounds for France seeking an armistice. I told Churchill and Halifax at Tours that I would never capitulate, but I begged Churchill not to abandon, France if another Government should capitulate. The generous-hearted Churchill said, 'Yes, if Britain wins France shall be restored to all her former greatness.' But this did not mean that the British Government authorised France to conclude an armistice. That is untrue." EXPECTED PLEAS. M. Mornet said that none of the pleas which Petain was expected to put up in his defence stood'up to scrutiny. These were that he was not responsible for his Government's acts, and that he played a double game with the Germans by paying them lip service while really sympathising with the Allies. - M. Mornet produced a document which accused Petain of using his post as French Ambassador in Madrid "to obtain financial assistance and promise of military aid." The same document said that Petain-and Hitler had drawn up the terms of the armistice between France and Germany early in the war, with General Franco as intermediary, but that Hitler had not kept his promises. The document was a record of an interrogation of Alibert, former Minister of Justice, who is now believed to be in hiding. The defence challenged the competence of the Court, declaring that the Magistrates of the High Court had taken the oath of allegiance to Petain. The prosecution replied that the oath had no value* as the country was then under the law of the enemy. The Court over-ruled the objection and ordered the trial to proceed. Petain entered the court at noon, wearing the insignia of a Marshal of France and medals which he won at the head of the French armies. He looked fit, though he had to walk with the aid of a stick. To reach his place, the Marshal had to walk within touching distance of the bench on which were sitting side by side two distinguished Frenchmen he had known and worked with—M. Lebrun, the last President of the Republic, and M. Paul Reynaud, Prime Minister until France's capitulation. Whether he saw them or not, the Marshal gave no'sign of recognition as he passed them. Petain stood facing the tribune as ithe Judges, in scarlet . and ermine jrobes, entered the Court. The 24 {members of the jury looked down on