Laval v. Leahy

The diplomatic tug-of-war between the U.S. and Germany for the favors of Vichy was so tough last week that worn old Marshal Petain must have felt that he was being torn limb from limb. For the moment, U.S. diplomacy seemed the stronger, but there was always the chance that Germany would abandon diplomacy for destruction.

While robust Ambassador Admiral William D. Leahy tugged for the U.S., Adolf Hitler threw into the contest Germany's best friend in France, the political contortionist Pierre Laval, a man so abhorred by masses of Frenchmen that no mention of his meeting with Marshal Petain was permitted in Vichyfrench newspapers./-

They met at Laval's request, somewhere near his estate at Chateldon in Randan Forest, twelve miles southwest of Vichy. Pierre Laval made the old Marshal a dazzling offer: if Laval were taken into the Vichy Government, the Nazis would free all French prisoners of war, allow the Vichy Government to move to Paris, greatly reduce France's occupation costs.

These were dreams of the Marshal. From the historic, beloved seat of French Government, with hundreds of thousands of war-separated families happily reunited, he might much more effectively sell his totalitarian ideas to the French people. But the solid figure of Ambassador Leahy was a constant reminder that the Allies would greatly disapprove, and might, after all, win the war. The Marshal had just shown that he was well aware of that possibility by giving a sheaf of assurances to the U.S. Government:

>Vichy would not surrender its fleet to the Axis.

>It would not surrender home or colonial bases to the Axis.

>It would send no more food and military trucks to Italy's North African forces.

>It would send no more military gasoline from its North African stocks to the Italians in Libya.

>It would move no more warships, as the Dunkerque had been moved from North Africa to Toulon (TIME, March 2), without first informing the U.S.

In return, the U.S. agreed to resume food shipments to French North Africa.

If Pierre Laval's nosing around Vichy failed, Adolf Hitler might force Vichy's assurances to the U.S. into the wastebasket. This week it was rumored that Vichy had halted the Riom war-guilt trials, quite possibly because they had outraged Hitler (TIME, March 30).

/-Equally abhorred is Editor Marcel Deat of L'Oeuvre, who with Laval was wounded last summer by Nazi-hating young Paul Colette (TIME, Sept. 8). Last week Editor Deat lectured at Tours. Someone threw a sputtering missile at him. After it had bounced off his coat, he snuffed out its fuse. German newspapers said it was a bomb, French that it was only a petard (firecracker), not powerful enough to hoist hefty Editor Deat.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.