ITALIAN WARSHIPS

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 22, 26 July 1945, Page 7

ITALIAN WARSHIPS

TRANSFER TO RUSSIA DENIED Rec. 10 a.m. ROME, July 25. The Italian Admiralty has denied reports that six Italian naval units have been transferred to Russia. The Admiralty added that the Armis- | tice terms did not provide for such ! transfers.

The new British Ambassador, Sir Victor Mallett, and his wife ax-rived in Madrid by air, says a London message. Sir Victor Mallett will present his credentials. to General Franco on Friday.

Petain said: "How can I give explanations? I have heard nothing that is going on. I don't know what it is all about." There were cries of protest and some laughter. ; ,- Concluding his evidence, Daladier said: "In my conscience,' Petain betrayed his duties and his mission. Petain betrayed his duty as a Frenchman." EX-PRESIDENT AS WITNESS. M. Albert Lebrun, the 73-year-old President of France until the collapse in 1940, entered the witness-box after the luncheon adjournment. He was led into the court with the ceremony which is reserved for the Chief of the State. In a voice trembling with emotion, he told of the exchanges with Mi-. Churchill and the British offer to make every > Frenchman a British citizen, which the French Cabinet rejected. • M. Lebrun said that as Petain had a majority he was compelled to call on him to form a Cabinet. Laval called on M. Lebrun on June 21 and insulted him, as he had insulted Daladier, by asking him to sign the armistice terms. Laval persisted in his request throughout the following day. Up to the, last minute, witness refused. Both Petain and Weygand wanted an armistice. When it was proposed that the Government should go to North Africa Petain said .that no one had the right to abandon the Country. Unhappy as France was, she must suffer before she could again rise. . The witness added that Petain forbade him to go to North Africa. M. Lebrun said that he refused the request of unnamed officials for his resignation, stating that he would serve to the end. of his term. Two days later he learned that the Vichy Government intended to revise the Constitution. At the end of his declaration, M. Lebrun said he could hardly express

his profound distress at the sight of the man, a warrior of France, who had risen so high and fallen so low.

In the afternoon the Judge loudly ordered Petain. to get up and answer questions. Petain, at the suggestion of his counsel, complied when the order was repeated.