LAVAL SHOT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24698, 29 August 1941, Page 5

LAVAL SHOT

CONDITION GRAVE FRIEND ALSO WOUNDED ASSAILANT DETAINED (Rec. 1 a.m.) VICHY, Aug. 27.. Attempts were made to assassinate M. Laval and M. Marcel Beat at Versailles. M. Laval was shot twice. One bullet struck his liver, and his condition is extremely grave. M. Beat was shot once. , M. Laval and M. Beat (another pro-Nazi Vichy supporter) were inspecting French troops who have volunteered to go to the eastern front to .fight Russia. The condition of both men is grave, says the Vichy correspondent of the Associated. Press. The doctors said it would be several days before they would be able to determine whether M. j Laval would recover. It is now stated that he was hit four times, his 'most serious wounds being in the throat and just above the heart. German military surgeons operated. MM. Laval and Beat were both recently warned that their lives were endangered. They refused

police protection but M. Beat later accepted it owing to his wife’s insistence. •

Heavily censored .Vichy reports indicate that the shooting signalled a new outbreak of wrecking and sabotage throughout France. After subjecting the assailant, Paul Collette, to questions for five hours, the French police concluded that the shooting was part of a Communist plot. Collette was born in Britanny. He is reported to have stated that he joined the Legion of Ariti-Bolshevist Volunteers in order to shoot those who favour collaboration with Germany. Count Bebrinon, several hours before the shooting, said: “The Government possesses knowledge of a vast Communist plot,, including a series of planned assassinations.” , Ahr.investigation has been started to discover whether the Communists ihoneycombed the volunteer legion with their own men. ,

The Baily Express, in a leader, says:-“ Liberty is not dead in France. The shooting of M. ■ Laval is an attempt to avenge the crimes this man committed against liberty. France lives under the heel _of the conqueror, but those who link up with the conqueror are in danger. No. German jackboot can save M. Laval and his kidney.” The Baily Mail says: “The shooting of MM. Laval and Beat is a momentous sign of the French people’s real state of mind. These two are Hitler’s Quislings of the foulest type. They are hated, so they were shot. The Germans will inflict cruel punishment - for the assault on their hirelings, but they will pever crush the reviving spirit of a great people.” A Vichy message slates that French and German authorities are hunting for British parachutists, who are blamed for sabotage. - A military court at Marseilles sentenced two men, alleged to be of British origin, to 20 years’ servitude for attempting to recruit Frenchmen for General de Gaulle’s forces.