Evening star., 1941-07-20
Trial of Ex-French Leaders
At Riom Expected to Be Farce
Character of Judges Seen as Only Hope
For Their Acquitto and Slap at Reich
By LEROY ARTHUR SHEETZ,

BY Leroy ARIHOR ShEE1Z,
Foreign Correspondent of The Star and
North American Newspaper Alliance.
NICE, France-(By MaiD. Al
though the fate of Germany, now
balancing on the point of a bayonet
in Russia, is intimately related with
it, preparations are going forward
patiently for one of the greatest
trials of French history The trial
is now scheduled to begin in few
months" in Riom, small town not
very far from Vichy.
This trial is of the French state
versus former Prime Ministers Leon
Blum. Edouard Daladier and Paul
Reynaud; versus Jeroboam Roth
schild, alias Mandel, and Guy La
Chambre. former heads of govern
ment ministries, and against Gen.
Maurice Gamelin, commander in
chief of the French forces at the
outbreak of hostilities in Septem-
Der. 1899.
ViChy has allowed very meager
information to leak out thus far,
but it would appear at present that
NJ Reynaud and M. Mandel are to
be tried as agents of a foreign power
that is, of course, England, and in
the case of M. Reynaud, perhaps
Russia as well. 1t is also limited
that M. Reynaud alone may be
charged with embezzlement of part
of the secret funds of the French
state and of having attempted to
export them from the country.
The Hand of the German.
Vichy, too, has let it be known
that M. Reynaud will be accused Of
being a war inciter"-that is, of
having induced his colleagues in
the cabinet, which was in power
when war broke out, to declare
Frances engagements with Poland
were a casus belli (cause of war;.
The hand of the German can be
seen clearly in all this and particu-
larly in the last count against NJ.
Reynaud. If he eventually is found
guilty at Riom as a war inciter,"
France, too, will have been found
guilty of having started the war. M
Reynaud was the country's respon-
sible leader when the deed was done.
Thus the Germans seek at Riom
a finding by the highest court in
France that they are unstained by
war guilt. This may be worth two
or three hundred billion francs to
the Nazis in reparations, if they are
victorious ultimately, and they
finally put in their bill at the peace
conference which will settle every
thing.
Elaborate Costumes.
Already Vichy has taken the
trouble to issue orders regulating
the official dress of the high magis-
trates who will preside solemnly
during what promises to be very
long trial. Precedent has been
sought laboriously out from the
past and each magistrate must wear
the same costume as a King of
France the day of his coronation.
Only the color will differ. The King
was in blue, monsieurs les magistrats
of Riom will be in red. But the
judges will wear the same furred
collar as King walking to be
crowned and the same coat, gar
ment bordered with ermine on one
side and gray squirrel on the other,
with a majestic train behind which
probably will be carried by an at
tendant.
These toilettes are somewhat SIM
liar to those worn today by the
judges of the French Court of Cas-
sation roughly the counterpart of
our American Supreme Court and
will cost small fortune. 1t is no
longer possible either to find the
silk or the lace for the gowns in
France, and one cannot even i'm
agine the price here today of err
mine or gray squirrel, or even of
rabbit skin, which might be sub
stituted.
These robes, of course. are very
heavy, and recently leading French
newspaper asked whether it was
march of justice in France seemed
to be extremely slow to impede its
step still more by all this costuming
of past ages.
Wrong Suspects.
The French people are grin1ly de-
termined that the leaders of the
past, responsible for all their pres
ent misery, be brought to trial and
be made to pay the maximum pen
atty for their crimes. French public
opinion is united solidly on this
point.
But no one among my French
friends thinks for a moment Vichy
has caught and is about to try the
men who are solely responsible for
Frances present lamentable situa-
ton. Like the heavy frippery of
the judges attire, emphasizing the
empty formality of the whole affair,
the trial, too, in the eyes of per-
haps 85 per cent of the nation, has
become nothing more than this.
To those I have spoken to the
trial is a gorgeous piece of pinch
beck Boche-ordered justice made
very reluctantly by Vichy to deceive
the boobies in the street.
Vichy Is Afraid of Trial.
Vichy evidently is very afraid of
this trial. 1t knows the trial may
become q boomerang which will
come back with force against the
governments which orSarad a.. H.