Wives & Witnesses

FRANCE Wives & Witnesses

For a moment the spotlight shifted from the treason trial of Marshal Henri Philippe Patain to his wife and the wife of Pierre Laval. In Paris' Cour de Justice, the two women, once among the French elite, now accused of "intelligence with the enemy," answered questions in a preliminary interrogation.

Madame la Marachale, 67, was dignified in a straw sailor and a high-necked light tailleur. Short, chunky Madame Laval, 57, wore sari-like slacks and a beige coat. Her hair was swathed in a capacious scarf.

Infant Care & Agriculture. Said Madame Patain: she had not mixed in the affairs of Vichy, had not even shared her husband's hotel there. In Spain she had not been friendly with Seaora France since the Seaora had not seen fit to return her first ceremonial visit. During the German occupation she had busied herself with good works, such as preparing lay ettes for indigent infants, bandage-rolling in hospitals open to all classes.

Said Madame Laval: she had not even lived at Vichy, but at Chateldon, some 13 miles away. She was doing "agricultural work." Her husband believed his policies were best for France, and she believed her husband.

Secret Orders. Then the wives, both under arrest, returned to their cells.

Frenchmen focused their attention again on the Marshal's trial in the Palais de Justice.

To the witness chair stepped dapper Prince Xavier de Bourbon-Parme, cousin of Archduke Otto of Austria and an ex-inmate of Dachau concentration camp.

Said the Prince with a bow to the Marshal: "Patain prevented many executions; had it not been for him, political depor tees would have numbered 2,000,000 instead of 200,000."

From General Alphonse Pierre Juin, currently commanding French occupation forces in Germany, came a telling letter. Patain had telegraphed secret orders to North Africa, countermanding his published Instructions to resist the Allied landings.

Crook & Gunman. To the favorable and the unfavorable testimony, the Marshal showed the same stoic indifference. But two witnesses jolted the old man out of his apathy. Into a booing, hissing court, under heavy escort, came two of France's most hated men : suave Count Fernand de Brinon, former Vichy ambassador to Ger man-occupied Paris, and defiant Joseph Darnand, once head of Vichy's hated militia. The court had called them despite the refusal of Prosecutor Andra Mornet to hear the evidence of "a crook and a gunman."

Said De Brinon: Patain favored collaboration. Said Darnand : Patain had authorized his acts. The Marshal flushed red with rage, stalked out of the court to his cell.

"Alter Immer Nein." Next day the defense scored more shrewd points. Patain's former private secretary, Jean Tracou, testified: Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop had dubbed Patain "Alter Immer Nein" ("Old Always No") because of his unwillingness to collaborate.

An underground Resistance leader, Charles Louis Barres, ascribed his escape from execution to Patain's intervention. Blind septuagenarian General Emile Delannurien praised Marshal Patain for protecting France in her dark hours.

The evidence was ended. Up rose red-robed Prosecutor Mornet, 75. For five hours, in a raw, rasping summation, he lashed the Marshal. Petain, he cried, had aided the enemy; he had committed treason. Then the septuagenarian prosecutor turned on the nonagenarian Marshal at his side: "I would not be doing my duty if I did not insist on the capital penalty."

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