Evening star., 1945-08-02
LuvuI's Lost Mile

Pierre Laval, arch tool of Nazi
Germany and the evil genius OF the
Vichy regime, is back on French soil
and securely lodged in Paris prison
after a malodorous odyssey of eva
sion which forms one of the
strangest episodes of World War
II. Fleeing with his Nazi masters
to the Reich before the Allied liber-
ators of his homeland, the impend-
ing collapse of Germany last spring
impelled him to seek some other
refuge. So, like rats leaving sink
ing ship, he and his encourage flew
in German military plane from
Northern Italy to Barcelona. Spain.
Laval's unheralded and unauthor-
lied arrival there put the Franco
government in an embarrassing
situation. 1t had already given as
surances that it would not receive
high political refugees from the Axis
countries; so Laval was at once in
carcerated in the fortress-prison Of
Montjuich, overlooking Barcelona,
and held there incommunicado
while his disposition could be set
tied. Madrids official attitude was
that Laval was being allowed to re-
main temporarily with the under
standing that he had come, not to
escape responsibility but to sur
render to the proper authorities.
Laval declared himself willing to
give himself up to representatives
OF the United Nations but not
specifically to French authorities.
There followed nearly three
months of negotiations, about which
much remains to be disclosed. The
Provisional Government of France
insisted on its right to Laval's sole
custody. while the delicate state OF
diplomatic relations between Paris
and Madrid rendered the Franco
government heSitant about admit
ting the claim. The deciding factor
in this diplomatic stalemate may
have been the outcome of the Brit
ish elections. Knowing that it was
on the black books Of the incoming
Labor government. the Franco
regime determined to get rid Of its
embarrassing guest and ordered
Laval to be gone forthwith, despite
his anguished appeals for more de-
lay. So the Swarthy renegade and
his sobbing wife were put aboard
the same German plane he had
come in, piloted by the original
German crew, and landed at Linz,
Austria, in the American occupation
zone. The American authorities
promptly handed Laval over to the
nearest French occupational off,
cials, who flew him with equal
promptitude to Paris, there to stand
trial for treaSon-a trial whose Ger
tain outcome will be the firing
squad.
Thus ends political career whose
Shiny trail can be traced back long
before the war into the jungle of
shady practices, bribery and cor
ruption which poisoned French pub
lie life in the declining days of the
Third Republic. fTricky as an
Auvergnat" is an old French proverD,
and Laval exemplified the bad repu-
tation attributed to the bare and
backward hill country whence he
sprang. Devoid of conscience or
scruples, devoted only to his per-
sonal advancement, and eminently
skilled in the arts of political CHI
canery, Laval threw in his lot un-
reservedly with the German con-
querors on the assumption that their
triumph was lasting and that he was
getting into their new order" on
the ground floor. But for once the
willy Auvergnat had gambled wrong.
and for that bad bet he will now
pay the ultimate forfeit.
Air Po;1 uoe4~~