Word: tain
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...Government of Germany learned last week what the people of France have gradually learned since the Armistice of June 22: that France's Chief of State is no stooge of Adolf Hitler, of Pierre Laval, or of anybody else. Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain is old, crotchety, painstaking, slow. He is also honorable, patriotic and, when he takes the advice of a few trusted friends, often a clever political tactician. Last week his political tactics seemed about to get France into big, bad trouble with her conquerors...
...dismissal fortnight ago of Vice Premier Laval, went Germany's Ambassador to France Otto Abetz. Young Otto Abetz had been charged by Adolf Hitler with removing from the Vichy Government any threats to the continued "collaboration" of France and Germany. In Vichy he saw Marshal Pétain, then hurried to nearby Châteldon to hear Laval's story of his break with Pétain. At Abetz' insistence, Chief of State Pétain received Citizen Laval and listened to his justification of the conduct, still unrevealed, which led to his dismissal. At Abetz...
Ambassador Abetz had other demands to make. He wanted Laval's man, Fernand de Brinon, made emissary between Vichy and the German authorities in Paris. This Marshal Pétain agreed to. He wanted Minister of the Interior Marcel B. Peyrouton's Groupe de Protection dissolved. This the Marshal also agreed to, although the GP was his own bodyguard. But when Ambassador Abetz demanded reorganization of the Cabinet, the ousting of Peyrouton and Minister of Justice Raphael Alibert, credited with heading the Pétain brain trust, Pétain asked for time...
These two were among the bitterest opponents of Laval in the Pétain Cabinet. Other non-politicians whom the old Marshal came to trust were War Minister General Charles Huntziger, Navy Minister Admiral Jean Darlan, Secretary of State for the Presidency of the Council Paul Baudouin, whom Laval ousted as Foreign Minister to take over the job himself. In this group, and in the person of General Maxime Weygand in Africa, centred the opposition to "collaboration" of a kind that would mean utter capitulation. Their strongest cards were the remainder of the French Navy and Weygand's Army...
...When," asked General Maxime Weygand once in a moment of deep exasperation, "will the old man [Pétain] stop sleeping with that charcoal dealer from Chateldon [Laval]?" The distrust of the hard-bitten little soldier for the swarthy politician of the white tie was deep-seated and violent. It led many people in many capitals to speculate that Weygand might desert Vichy for Great Britain. Last week North American Newspaper Alliance's chubby, energetic Jay Allen flew to Marrakech, Morocco, scooped the world's press on Weygand's present political intentions: "I cannot give you answers...