Word: laval
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VICHY--Admiral Jean Francois Darlan tonight became French vice-premier and foreign minister in a stop-gap cabinet shakeup which is expected to pave the way for Pierre Laval's early return to power in the Vichy regime...
...They were not made public but their general tenor was known. Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain learned of them by telephone from his Ambassador to Paris, Count Fernand de Brinon. They were harsher than the old Marshal had expected. Not only did Hitler want the restitution of Pierre Laval to power to insure the "collaboration" he demands, not only did he want passage for German troops across Tunisia for an attack on the British in Libya (TIME, Feb. 3), but he also now wanted to occupy Mediterranean ports in France as well as in North Africa. These demands went...
...little concessions, apparently unwilling to believe that the only concession that ever satisfies Adolf Hitler is capitulation. The old Marshal forced the resignation from his Cabinet of Minister of Justice Raphaël Alibert, one of his closest advisers and the man who brought about the downfall of Pierre Laval. He appointed 40 "men of thought and action" to correlate French political activity into a single party. That was not nearly enough...
Though Pierre Laval's name was not mentioned, two of his henchmen, Pierre Cathala and M. de Fontenoy, were sponsors of the new party. Evident object of Laval, Déat & Co. was to force the Marshal to replace the coterie which now surrounds him with Laval...
...soften Hitler's demands. The Admiral had no sooner arrived than he stated flatly: "I affirm that the French Fleet is absolutely and will remain under complete French jurisdiction and that it will defend the Empire against any challenge whatsoever." But Admiral Darlan had authority to agree to Laval's reinstatement provided Marshal Pétain retained supreme power...