Into a snug nutshell Paris-soir last week crammed a smug definition of Europe's war. It is a "conflict of two civilizations and of two mysticisms—that of gold or liberal capitalism, which is that of America, and that of the service of the State and of labor, which is that of Nazi Germany." Still paying lip service to gold and liberal capitalism, the men of Vichy indicated through their actions last week which "mysticism" Petain France endorsed. "Germany invites us to reconstruct Europe," wrote Rightist Deputy Fernand-Laurent in Le Jour. "I do not hesitate to say that to the extent that French interests, our independence and our dignity are safeguarded, the new France must accept this invitation." Neither independence nor dignity was so much in evidence as a disposition to curry favor with the conquerors by wreaking vengeance on the Frenchmen who had tried to prevent the conquest.
Trials. On Aug. 8 at Riom, a quaint, forgotten town in Auvergne with grass-grown streets and stately derelict mansions, a new Supreme Court of Justice created by a Petain decree will convene "to search for and judge ... all those . . . who have during an undefined time committed crimes or misdemeanors or betrayed duties in their charge by acts that led to the passage from the state of peace to a state of war . . . and by acts which thereafter aggravated the consequences of the situation thus created." The Court, composed of five prominent French jurists, an admiral and a general, has a shameful political job to perform. Revolutions and great defeats demand their scapegoats. Elected scapegoats, apparently in cold blood, were Generalissimo Maurice Gustave Gamelin, onetime Premiers Edouard Daladier, Paul Reynaud and Leon Blum, onetime Ministers Yvon Delbos, Georges Mandel, Cesar Campinchi, Guy La Chambre, Pierre Cot, and their direct & indirect collaborators. The men of Vichy apparently still had a little too much conscience to take the scapegoats' lives. The maximum sentence the Riom court may impose is life imprisonment. Although there is no appeal, Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, as Chief of State, has reserved for himself the right of pardon.
No easy task will be that of special Attorney General O. Cassagnau, who will direct the prosecution, because unless his aim is extremely accurate, the denunciations he will hurl at the defendants may spatter Petain's Defense Minister Generalissimo Maxime Weygand, who commanded the Army during those final disastrous weeks, or even Marshal Petain himself, who was Daladier's Ambassador to Spain, Reynaud's Vice Premier. There were indications last week that the trial, coinciding with the U. S. Presidential election, might also be used at Nazi insistence to smear Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his Ambassador William C. Bullitt through "revelations" of sweeping promises.