Evening star., 1940-07-13
French Fall Blamed
On Panic Of Group
Including Petain
Passengers Return
With Story Of Arrest
Of Peace Plea Foes
BY IRA WOLFERT.

NEW YORK, July Is IN AM -
The terrible story of the last days
Of the Republic of France-a story
historians will be piecing together
at least for the balance of our life
time-was added to by passengers
arriving on the Atlantic clipper
from Lisbon Thursday.
Among them was 28-year-old
Archduke Otto of Hapsburg, heir to
the dismembered and all but oblit-
Grated Austro- Hungarian Empire
and one of the chief pawns in the
game the French once played to
halt the Nazi tide down the Danube.
Otto told story of personal ad-
venture which must rank high
among chronicles of royalty in fight
from death.
Two other passengers, who are in
a position to speak authoritatively,
but whose names must be withheld,
described how while "treachery was
present and busy throughout France,
clear to the Spanish border, the
republic finally was murdered by
panic-stricken old men," Their
trembling hands, according to them,
fumbled everything except the knife.
Petain First to Succumb."
These two passengers said Mar
shall Petain, the present ruler of
France, was the first in high place
to succumb to panic. "On May 18, a
week before King Leopold of Bel
gium surrendered, Petain told Pres
ident Albert LIE Brun all was lost.
President lie Brun replied, You
mean Belgium is lost?' and Petain
said, France, too. We must sur
render From now on it is not war,
but massacre
'Petain." the informants ex-
planned. "is "a years old, and he
suffers from the infirmities common
to man that age"
Late on June 16, cabinet meet
ing. the last presided over by Pre-
mier Reynaud, was held at Bor-
deaux. M. Reynaud, they said, was
firm in his resolve to carry on the
war at any cost because, he felt the
alternative to that was "the death
of the nation" His decision was
put to a vote in the cabinet and
won by a narrow majority. Among
those who voted to ask for sepa-
rate peace were Marshal Petain and
Gen. Weygand.
Shortly after the meeting broke
up, Georges Mandel, M. Reynaud's
Minister of the Interior, told one
of my informants that M. Reynaud
had decided he could not carry on
the war without reorganizing the
cabinet and eliminating those in it
who were panic stricken. According
to M. Mandel, M. Reynaud's plan
was to go to President Lebrun and
resign on condition that the Presi-
dent would Immediately reappoint
him to form new cabinet. My in
formant's personal safety was at
stake in the maneuver and M. Man.
del consented to see him at 2::30 the
following afternoon to inform him
of the result.
Told of Manders Arrest.
II arrived promptly" my in
formant said. "A Negro in some
strange uniform was on guard out
side M. Mandel's suite. I ordered
him to stand aside, but he spoke
no French and replied in some
tongue I could not understand. I
pushed past him and found the suite
empty except for M. Mandels Sec
retary. She was hysterical and in
tears. She told me finally that M.
Mandel had been arrested by police
and had left word with her that I
was to leave France at once.
II left Bordeaux Immediately for
Spain. M. Mandels arrest is the
only one I learned of at first hand.
I was informed later, reliably, I am
sure, that M. Reynaud had come to
his agreement with Lebrun and had
resigned and that then Lebrun had
refused to live up to the agreement
and recommission him to form a
new cabinet, but instead had asked
Petain to form the new cabinet.
Immediately thereafter, whether
by Lebrun or Petain, I don't know,
the arrest of all ministers who had
voted to continue the war was Or
dered and carried out. 1t amount to
a putsch, a palace putscb, helped
along with a double-cross that is
without precedent in the history of
governments that have not yet sue
cumbed to the guns of revolution.
"Putsch" Blamed on Panic.
II do not believe the putsch was
a matter of treachery, but of panic.
However, treachery-the fifth COL
umn-went on to an enormous ex-
tent. It's power was not SO much
that 1t was In places Of great au-