CLOSELY GUARDED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 November 1943, Page 4

CLOSELY GUARDED

BUT SHOWING SIGNS OF WEAR. TIME & EVENTS TAKING TOLL OF LAVAL. Time has taken its toll on Laval, says a writer in the “Tribune de Lausanne.” One after another, his old friends have abandoned the struggle or obtained the privileges they wanted. He is now more authoritative, more nervous and less capable of accepting even the ‘contradictions of friends, who previously helped him appraise the reactions of public opinion. Since he was the victim of an attempt on his life, Laval has become more cautious, suspicious and prudent. The police guard him closely day and night. His armoured car travels surrounded by armed motor cyclists, and two police cars drive with him when he journeys outside Vichy, and, adds the paper, “without giving him a chance to enter into contact with the real world.”

“Even old friends cannot see him freely,” says the Swiss correspondent, “because he is surrounded by officials and ambitious people who have put money on him and who, lacking both in experience and disinterestedness, intend to reap the immediate profits of Laval’s policy, which they want to see continued to its extreme consequences.”