The Accusation 1

Pierre Laval had been a minister many times and twice prime minister. The growth of his private fortune had paralleled his political ascent. The facts, the documents and the witnesses, M. Mornet assured the jury, would amply support the charges of a plot against the security of the state and intelligence with the enemy. This was a remarkable catalogue of accusations of historical events in a turbulent time of war, in a France which had lain supine and helpless at the feet of a vicious enemy. The indictment charged that at Montoire, Laval and Marshal Petain had betrayed the interests of France in favour of those of the enemy. In the bitter aftermath of war and defeat, occupation and liberation, these were difficult issues to weigh and to balance and the only verity must be that the answers were neither all black nor all white.