Evening star., 1943-04-05
DaIadier and Blum
Shifted 10 Nazi JaiIs
To Prevent Coup
Berlin Rudio Also Tells
Of GumeIin's Transfer
From French Prison
BY the Associated Press,

BY the Associated PRESS.
LONDON, April 5.-The Berlin
radio last night announced the
transfer to German jails of the
former French Premiers, Edouard
Daladier and Leon Blum, and the
former Allied military leader,
Gen. Maurice Gustave Gamelin,
because of a planned Anglo
American coup de main" which
might free them.
Thus Germany added three prize
hostages to the hundreds of thou
sands already handed over to the
Reich by the puppet Petain-Laval
regime, as we'll as millions Of war
prisoners laboring in German mill
tary plants.
In this additional antiinvasion
preparedness on the part Of Ger
many, it was disclosed officially for
the first time that former Premier
Paul Reynaud and former Colonial
Minister Georges Mandel. had pre-
ceded Deladier. Blum and Gamelin
into Nazi captivity.
These big five of the now dead
French Republic were the men on
whom Adolf Hitler-through the
farcical Riom trial administered
through Vichy-had tried to pin the
blame for the outbreak Of the war.
Nazi Uneasiness Shown.
The Riom trial failed in that OBJ
iective, being suspended by Vichy
after embarrassing testimony was
submitted by the defendants to
show that Marshal Petain himself
was guilty of French war unpre-
paredness.
The German move further re-
flected Nazi uneasiness at the pros
pect of an imminent Allied invasion.
and also seemed to strip away any
lingering pretense that the Vichy
government was an independent re-
gime
The Berlin radio admitted Ger
man fears that these men might
head 'counter-governmen if they
escaped, and also said that the Ger
man government had overruled
Pierre Lavals request that the pris-
oners remain in Vichy prisons.
Berlin's announcement as record
ed by the Associated Press said:
The German government has
come to the conclusion from in
formation it has received that the
British and American governments
intend to lay hold of some rench
personalities who until now were in
France in order to use them for the
establishment of a counterg govern
ment and thus to call forth unrest
and confusion in France.
Weygand Also Reported Held.
THE German government there
fore has decided Just as it has been
the case already with Former Minis
ters Paul Reynaud and Mandel. to
transfer now also the former Prime
Ministers, Daladier and Leon Blum,
as well as Gen. Gamelin, to Ger
many.
The German government after
carefully considering the reasons
just given, could not comply with
the request by Chief of the French
Government Laval to leave these
personalities in France. 1t gave
the French government assurance
however, that this transfer of the
aforementioned personageS. made
necessary from military reasons
would not entail any hardships in
comparison with the treatment &C
corded them in the past"
Gen. Maxine Weygand former
French commander in North Africa,
is another repeatedly held in
German prison. He disappeared
shortly after the total occupation
of France by the Nazi army last
November.
German pressure had forced his
removal in Africa prior to the Allied
invasion there. and the Nazis ap-
parently were making sure that he
did not escape to join the Allies
as did Gen. Henri Giraud.
Blum, Daladier and Gamelin had
been held in Vichy prisons since
1910 following the collapse of France.
and Marshal Petains assumption of
power They have undergone great
physical strain, especially Blum and
Gamelin, who are 70 years old
Fireworks Supplied by Daladier.
Daladier SO, supplied many of the
fireworks at the Riom war gull"
trial which began February 49, 1912,
and ended in an indefinite suspen-
sion the following April 2.
Known as the Bull" Daladier,
who was premier at the outbreak
of war in 1899, questioned the legal
ity of the Petain regime and the
Riom trail, and also accused Petain
of partial responsibility for the lack
of Notifications in the Sedan sector
where the main German penetration
of French lines occurred in May,
1910.
Daladier quoted from a letter the
marshal had written when mem
Der of the supreme war council, the
substance of which was Petain's as
sertion that it was unnecessary to
carry out extensive Notifications in
that area.
Another defense witness, Gen,
Paul Henri Gerodias. mentioned
Petains name in connection with
preWar maneuver which threw
Red scare into French officers.
Daladier. Blum. Gamelin, Guy la
Chambre, former air minister. and
Pierre Jacomet. former defense in
duStrieS administrator were actual
defendants in the suspended Riom
trial. Reynaud and Mandel never
were brought to trial. Reynaud sue
ceeded Daladier in 1910 and then
was overthrown by Petain's armis-
tice government, and Mandel was
one of the men who went to Africa
in June, 1910. in the hope that
France would fight on from there.
A recent Paris dispatch to Swiss
newspaper said Mandel's prewar pri-
vate secretary, Philippe RocQues
had been shot and killed when he
sought to flee a concentra ton camp.
Rayburn Warns u. 5.