Petain’s body to go back to Ten

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33158, 23 February 1973, Page 9

Petain’s body to go back to Ten

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter- —Copyright) PARIS, February 22. Police have found the stolen remains of World War II collaborationist leader, Marshal Philippe Petain, and will take his coffin back to its lonely Atlantic island tomb today amid big security precautions. j The marshal’s coffin,:coffin in the giant Douaumont ‘snatched from the island oLNational Military Cemetery iYeu on Monday in a Right-i before the authorities realiwing extremist plot .that ised it had been taken.

stunned millions of French-: men, was found in a Paris suburb last night. Officials declined to say how the remains were discovered.

The marshal’s coffin spent the night in the chapel of a military hospital ready to be moved back to its island grave today at the request of relatives. ___ Gendarme reinforcements (were being sent to Yeu to ‘avoid demonstrations duringi (the reburial. . Police in Paris, Versailles, j and Angers were holding: 'seven Right-wingers—one of; (them a woman — in connec-. , tion with the coffin robbery. ’ The aim was to force the | French Government to rebury (the former Vichy regime head! on the Verdun battlefield' (where he was proclaimed a ( hero, in the First World War. Right-wing extremists, and; perhaps some older French-! men. would have viewed a' Verdun burial as rehabilita-' tion for the former marshal \ whose post-wai- death sen-: tence for high treason was’ later commuted to life impri-j (sonment. He died in 1951. Discovery of the coffin bei fore it reached Verdun in' ‘eastern France was certain to' be greeted bv the Govern-1 (ment of President Georgesj ( Pompidou with a sigh of re-' I lief since it apparently avoids ,ian embarrassing situation ! rust before a crucial General Election. Marshal Petain’s relatives ! have said that a transfer to . Verdun can only take place after a retrial and a rehabilitation for the former hero, a i(subject which divides France and annarently even the Gov- ■ ernment. Since rhe family has ac- ; cept.ed the return to Yeu. Pomnidou will not be forr-ed : to take anv decision on what i to do with the coffin and which would have been cer(tain to antagonise many’ ; Frenchmen. , Veterans of the French Re-i (sistance against the Nazi (occunation had said that they > iwould never nermit a reha-1 'bilitation for Marshal Petain, ' which, they said, would be to’ J rehabilitate treason. Hubert Massol. an extreme .Right-wing election candidate ’ and one of five persons i arrested in Paris in connection with the coffin snatch ‘has said that he engineered: ' rhe plot to return the remains ■to the Verdun battlefield ‘ "'here Petain stunned a mnior. Gom-ian offensive in 1916l 19)7. Massol said that the aim of I his group was to place the.