NEW TRIAL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 242, 12 October 1945, Page 5

NEW TRIAL

PLEA FOR LAVAL

Reynaud's Name Heads List Of Prominent Frenchmen N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 1 p.m. PARIS, Oct. 11. A former Prime Minister of France, M. Paul Reynaud, who was condemned and imprisoned by Vichy, to-day headed the list of prominent Frenchmen demanding a new trial for Laval. The newspaper L'Orde reported that M. Reynaud said that he did not doubt if an appeal were possible the High Court decision would be 1 reversed. He suggested that the conviction could be quashed by a Government ordinance because the Appeal Court was unable to 'reverse a High Court decision. "It is the end, but Pirrot is ending well," said Madame Laval in discussing Laval, whom she calls "Pirrot," says Reuters Paris correspondent. She is not allowed to see her husband, who is wearing the coarse serge of a prisoner under sentence of death. Laval, having been sentenced to death for a. political crime, is under stricter supervision than if he had been condemned as a common murderer. His own clothes were taken from him on his arrival at Fresnes prison and he was ordered to don prison garb. His ankles are chained and the regulations forbid even the temporary removal of the chains. There are no favours granted to Laval. His request for a table in his cell so that he might work out his notes and sort his documents was refused. He normally smoked 50 cigarettes a day, but his, allowance has been reduced to 40 a week. The public prosecutor, M. Mornet, said there could not be an appeal to the High Court. The sentence was in due form, in spite of accused's absence. LOSSES OF GERMAN ' FORCES DURING WAR 11 a.m. LONDON, Oct. 11. The Prime Minister, Mr. Attlee, told the House of Commons that the estimated total losses in killed and permanently wounded suffered by the German Armed Forces throughout the war was 7,400,000.