TRIAL POSTPONED

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVII, Issue 23186, 27 April 1945, Page 5

TRIAL POSTPONED

Marshal Petain To Be Placed In Custody (7.30 p.m.) PARIS, April 25. The Ministry of Justice announced that the trial of Marshal Petain, fiixed for May 17, has been postponed. A high court official to-night left tor Switzerland with a summons demanding Marshal Petain’s surrender to the French authorities, which is the first formal step the Government has to take to place him in custody. The Government to-night denied that Marshal Petain had yet left Swiss territory. Marshal Petain will be imprisoned near Paris until his trial. He will not be allowed visitors except his counsel.

The Government is taking elaborate precautions to prevent disorder. The Paris newspapers express no little concern abdut Marshal Petain’s sudden appearance. M. Jean Marin writing in “Depeche de Paris” says, “Hitler has not sent us Vi’s but Marshal Petain instead.”

The "Front National” declares, "Collaborators are attacking to-day and to-morrow. They will make use of Marshal Petain’s return which has occurred with German complicity to divide the nation.”

Most of the other newspapers attack Marshal Petain in violent terms, revealtag that his arrival has begun to accentuate divisions in French opinion.

The French Press Agency states that Marshal Petain crossed the French frontier near Geneva this morning. He is now en route to Paris with his suite.

Japanese Officials In Switzerland (7.30 p.m.) LONDON, April 25. Japanese Embassy officials from Vichy, who followed Marshal Petain to Signaringen and fled from there before the arrival of the Allied troops, have arrived at St. Gall, says the Berne correspondent of the "Daily Express." They will remain at St. Gall until .the Swiss decide what to do with them.