PLEA BY PETAIN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 205, 12 June 1945, Page 3

PLEA BY PETAIN

APPEASEMENT OF GERMANS. WHILE ALLIES WERE PREPARING THE RESISTANCE MOVEMENT. (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright.) (Rec. 10. So a.m.) LONDON, Juno 11. Marshal Petain claimed before the examining magistrate that he was a member of the Resistance Movement in Metropolitan France, says the British United Press correspondent at Paris. Petain denied that lie tried to stifle the Resistance Movement and declared that politics in the occupied countries had necessarily to be “twofaced.” He was forced to appear to give satisfaction to the Germans while the Allies prepared for victory. “Since Laval was imposed on me by the Germans I used him to appease them, thus allowing me to hide my true orientation in my politics,” said the Marshal. “In this role, of which he was ignorant, Laval was not unuseful to France.” Petain said that handing over hostages to the Germans made him suffer most. The correspondent says it is learned that Petain has no copy of the secret treaty to which, it is alleged, Mr Churchill subscribed, and his defence relies on photostatic copies of a memoranda.