Evening star., 1951-07-23

.
He was relatively undistin-
guished bachelor colonel of So,
headed for retirement when World
War I began. His life had been
devoid of excitement or excep--
tional promise. He had never
heard a shot fired in anger. The
parents to whom he had been born
lon April "a. 1856, were peasants;
their farm. near Chauchy-a-la-
Tour in the Pas-de- Calais region,
was modest one.
Having prepared at a local
Jesuit school and at a Dominican
college near Paris, he entered st.
Cyr, the French military academy,
at the age Of 20, graduating two
years later as a first lieutenant.
Promotion came slowly. His firm
est claim to fame before 1914 was
that. as a war college instructor. J
he had preached a theory Of de-
fensive ground war which was to
prove as sound in World War I as
1t proved disastrous in World War
II.
Prison Regime Moderated.
Although the prison regime to
which he was subjected in the
island of Yeu's little fortress after
World War II was at first severe, ),
it was considerably moderated
with his advancing years.
The narrow camp bed upon
which he slept in a converted
|casemate was changed for a more
comfortable one. He was given a
soft armchair to replace the
wooden one which first stood alone
in his cell. But he still had cleo
trio light only from to 10 in the
Evenings and the water with
which he washed was brought him
from the fortress well.
His elderly wife herself lived
on the island to be near him.
After a time she was permitted
to visit him daily for lunch
|eon. Usually she brought along
some delicacy from food parcels
sent from abroad to supplement
the old mans army rations.
He was allowed a shelf of books
and kept his Vichy speeches at
his bedside. Sometimes he read
them aloud.
Suffered From Solitude.
Petain was cared for by three
nuns from the islands hospital,
young medical orderlies and a res
ident army physician. Even so,
he probably suffered most from
the extreme solitude of his con-
f1nement.
Throughout the years. as the
old soldier slipped more and more
into the twilight of q weakened
memory and growing feebleness, /
his lawyers-Jacques Isorni and
Jean Lemaire-worked tirelesslyI
in Paris to get his lot improved.
Early in 1949 many Frenchmeni |
began to have certain change
of feeling regarding the marshal.
While not condoning the Vichy re-
gime. they remembered again the |
services he had rendered France |
as the hero of Verdun. There were
that his great ageE
should win him new consideration 4
Gen. de Gaulle himself made al
public appeal that Petain be moved
to the mainland where he could |
see green grass and trees" But
the case of Petain was too hot for
most of the Fourth Republics Of
f1cials to wish to handle.
Moch Threascned to Quit. |
Interior Minister Jules Moch,
who is also Minister of National
Defense. could not forget that his
son had been executed by the Ger
mans. He threatened to resign If |
the government moved Petain.
An appeal by Petain's two law
yers to President Vincent Auriol in
1949 was unheeded. A move made |
a year ago urging revision Of his
trail because of new evidence oni
the Vichy period was, however,
taken under study by the Ministry
of Justice.
The opinion of the court which
ended by finding Petain guilty of
treason considered point by point
the acts of collaboration of the
Vichy regime with Germany and
laid responsibility for them at the
marshal's feet. The presiding
Judge said Petain had instituted |
"a veritable regime of terror" in |
France.