A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER

!76 No. 5250

Lo n d o n , De c em b e r 21st, 1940 s ix p e n c e

IN THIS ISSUE THE CROWDED INN Some Points in the Gospel Story considered by Mgr. Ronald Knox

THE BETHLEHEM SHEPHERDS Their place in Christian Art, by Nesta de Robeck

THE HOUSE OF BREAD

An Editorial for Christmas Day

ST. ODILE’S PROPHECY

A KNOWLEDGE TEST

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK >,'n versus Laval ‘ tk F rench approach perhaps the saddest Christmas

Petain and any o f his Ministers is further widened by what has taken place.

heir great history with the news of M. Laval s fall start

iç,. -<• endless conjecture. From the first announce-

The Proximate Causes

° f that news, it was obvious that Marshal Pétain t lound himself abominably deceived by the man iw*ad solemnly proclaimed his understudy and

I), N Hva l .. Of ^ ‘tled to full recognition of the fact that at the end \ * Very difficult and trying months his personal

:ssor. It was wretched judgment to have associated h n'^.'vith the new regime so closely. But Marshal Pétain

° n the French has not weakened. Those FrenchS / h o chiefly think in terms of internal issues, of lhe class warfare or another Commune, are behind »^M arshal as the only figure who can preserve ^ Pal unity- Those Frenchmen who are more Vtin .conscious how much of France is in German h6voi i’on’ anc* wh° hold it folly to attempt national ^rjtj V^oiis of any kind now, who wait and watch for \ f?h successes, also make a great distinction between |°lcli Ures at Vichy. General de Gaulle, a professional V er himself, keeps his strongest blame for Petain,

n anc* Darlan, but in France itself, as we have ^ r e . from several first-hand witnesses recently, ^ . ls a general tendency to think that those three V ? not reahy behind the notion of full collaboration \ Nazis, whereas many of the civilian politicians !Vti Admiral Darlan has the reputation of being h ^ .^ la r ly bitter against England, but in France there

t; vely memory of the way he suggested, at the moment **l e Armistice, that he might have to act strangely

The dismissal of Laval throws some light on several items of news reported during the past few weeks. There was, for example, his rather mysterious failure to arrive in Berlin in the first week o f this month, when he was certainly expected by the Nazis. A number o f minor French officials did arrive, but Laval himself apparently changed his mind at the last minute. Reports from Berne said at the time that Marshal Pétain had cancelled the visit because he could not tolerate the proposed agenda ; and we certainly do not like to think to what Laval might not have committed himself if he had been left alone in the Wilhelmstrasse for a few days.

According to the Free French news agency, in a report published at the end of November, the first serious breach between Pétain and Laval came at a Cabinet meeting on October 26th, to which Laval presented German terms that he had received in Paris. These were rejected, largely at the instance of General Huntzigef, it was said, and despite the strenuous advocacy of Laval, chiefly on account of a condition providing that Germany should have the use of all the ports of France and the French Empire. It is interesting, therefore, that persistent neutral reports should now be saying that the proximate cause of Laval’s dismissal was that he urged that Toulon should be placed at the disposal o f the Germans to enable them to send assistance to the Italians in North Africa. The French Revival

future, but that men should go by the effects k„at he did, and not at all by what he said or seemed >C d»i"S. 1 It Abetz Intervenes % nls fiuite clear that Franco-German collaboration §0iQaot Vet got very far. Hitler has had every reason for lip slowly and for winning collaboration and building

P.arty in France, as in Spain, but he cannot wait ?r a hhely. No one doubted, in spite of the pretence l$sUe a° 1Tlestic issue, that Laval fell over the German lo jA No sooner had he fallen than Herr Abetz had f°r to vichy and intervene. M. Flandin stands 'V*1ickUc^ same policy, but he enters a Government

as a Government has lost a great deal of whatever the'?? it had. While the personal prestige of Petam

y his right hand man, the gulf between Marshal

A small sign of the stiffening attitude of the French was shown in a broadcast the other day from Radio Lyons, given by a spokesman of the French Legion of Ex-Servicemen. “ There are three things which everyone must know,” he said. “ First of all, that France was obliged to conclude an arfnistice ; secondly, that a new order will be built in Europe ; and thirdly, that no new European order which will be lasting can be built if it is to be based on a peace dictated by a conqueror. . . . We must make ourselves strong and rich so that we may be asked to give our voluntary adhesion to the new Europe of tomorrow. Only thus can a living peace be assured for the conqueror, and a iust peace for the rest o f Europe.”

The French wireless, of course, is still closely controlled, and no sentiments such as these could be

I