FRENCH MINISTER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 229, 29 September 1942, Page 6

FRENCH MINISTER

DISMISSED FROM OFFICE LAVAL’S RESHUFFLE London, Sept. 2fi. A Vichy report states that Benoist Mechin, one of Laval’s three Secretaries of State, has been dismissed from office for alleged intriguing against Laval. He was dismissed both as Secretary of State and as President of the Tricolour (Fascist) Legion. Admiral Platon and Count de Brinon remain as the other two Secretaries of State. Following rumours that a change' of Government was impending, Lavai ! made the following statement to the Press: “The Government is most solid, and Marshal Petain is in excellent health. There is no reason for a change. Nothing can prevent me from serving my country.” Laval has given Germany control of France’s great chemical dye industry, reports the correspondent of the British United Press on the French frontier. Laval first of all rounded up three of the “big four” of industry—-the Saint Denis, Sain Clair, and Kuhlmann concerns—and renamed them the Francolour organisation, with a capital of £4,500,000. The terms of the merger laid down that the participants must hold 40 per cent, of the shares, but that they could dispose of 51 per cent. The result was that the 51 per cent, were sold to the great German dye trust, I. G. Farbenindustrie, giving Germany control. Laval reasons that if Germany dominates the French industry she will not molest France in order to get the best returns from the industry.