LAVAL’S HOPE
GERMAN VICTORY. WANTED
'FEELING OF FRENCH PEOPLE “Laval’s political exile lasted 16 months. The better part of this time he spent in Paris, under German protection, in endless conversations with Otto Abetz, representative of the Reich in occupied iFrance, and Abetz’s masters. “He knows what he wants. And it is only too likely that he is in perfect agreement with the occupying Power as to the way, the place, the time, the rhythm of the French contribution . which will bring German victory—and he longs for it. “But how can he carry out his promise against the will of the French people ? To-day, all witnesses agree on the intensity of popular feeling against the Germans which rages in France under seeming resignation or even apathy.
“In vast numbers Frenchmen understand that they can never again become free and independent except by a victory of England, the United States and Russia. The majority of them also believe that the entrance of the United States into the struggle spells German defeat.
“And let us not forget that lasting horror branded on men’s hearts by the mass killing of hostages, that burning indignation which occasionally bursts through in some violent gesture—in Paul 'Colette’s pistolshot. Is that comparable in essence to the knife thrusts of Charlotte Corday?—“Pertinax,” in the New York Times.
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Bibliographic details
Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3151, 3 August 1942, Page 3
Word Count
219LAVAL’S HOPE Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3151, 3 August 1942, Page 3
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