Evening star., 1940-07-25
Duludier's War GuiIt'


appeasement of Munich and Premier
Of France during the first seven
months Of the war which followed
that tragic deal with Hitler, is to
be subjected to judicial investigation.
Virtually prisoner of the Petain-
Laval regime, following his recent
return to Marseille from French
Morocco, M. Daladier faces an in
quiry and possible punishment with
respect to his alleged responsibility
for Frances entry into the conflict
which ended in the destruction of
her independence and conversion
into Fascist state.
Among others threatened by the
same ordeal are two members of the
Daladier ministry which declared
war on Germany-Navy Minister
Campinchi and Colonial Minister
Mandel, Clenlenceau's famed World
War aide, known as the tiger cub"
M. Delbos, a one-time foreign min
lister who joined the Daladier cabinet
after the outbreak of war, is also in
the group about to undergo inquisi-
ton for war guilt"
To what extent NJ. Daladier and
his associates are being made scape-
goats by the Petain-W -Weygand-Lava
group, which signed the armistice
with the Nazis, is momentarily
obscure. Nor is it yet apparent how
much pressure was brought to bear
upon the captive government at
Vichy by its German masters. These
have never ceased to pillory M.
Daladier and the British govern
ment of last summer as the culprits
who insisted" upon goading Poland
into resisting Hitler's demands over
Danzig and the Corridor and thus
precipitating war
Evidently the new government of
France, voluntarily or otherwise, is
bent upon fixing upon the Daladier
ministry primary blame for leading
the republic down the road to ruin.
AS to M. Daladier, while most
Frenchmen. as do most Britons,
today recognize the grave error COM
mitted at Munich in October, 1898,
1t remains fact that the former
French Premier, along with Mr..
Chamberlain, eventually made up
his mind that appeasement had its
limits. Jointly they decided to have
done with it, once and for all, when
Hitler fancied he could intimidate
Britain and France into submission
over Poland, as he had done in the
case of Czecho-Slovakia. That was
M. Daladier's supreme offense in
Nazi eyes and may well lie at the
root of the present plan to prose-
cute him.
The French people cherish
grievance against Daladier not only
on account of Munich, but because
of his slow motion conduct of the
war. Chamberlain fell from grace
for the same reason. To the last
Daladier remained an apostle of the
fatal theory of relying on the
defensive as the best means of
thwarting the mechanical might of
Germany. His departure from the
premiership presaged the dismissal
of General Gamelin, also an advo-
cate of defensive warfare, and his
succession by Marshal Petain, expo
nent of the attack policy.
In case the procedure about to be
conducted permits fair and open
airing of the truth, the "investiga-
ton" of M. Daladier and his COL
leagues should shed vital light on
men, motives and events at Paris dur
ing the year that preceded Frances
downfall. But, held under the armed
aegis of the conqueror and carried
on by the former Premier's political
foes, it may be doubted whether the
inquiry will be marked by that
strictly judicial spirit which so emf
nent an affair of state calls for.
Suggestions from Vichy that the
investigation" may be a prelude to
mass trials like those held in France
after the Revolution and Commune
have an ominous ring.