Bodewash

When Francois Coulet, General Charles de Gaulle's civil administrator for Normandy, fired subprefect Pierre Rochet, collaborationist chief of police of Bayeux, bitter-end patriots cheered. They pointed out that Rochet was a cousin of Pierre Pucheu, the first high Vichyite officially condemned and shot for treason.

When Coulet let Rochet wander off without punishment, hinted that he might be given a job elsewhere in liberated France, bitter-enders raged. But moderates, who had long since won the day in Gaullist councils, decided that Vichyites should be coolly but firmly judged. A high French official in Algiers said recently: "This talk of bumping off everybody who has been playing ball with Vichy, it is a lot of . . . how do you say it. . . bodewash!* C'est de la merde."

* Bodewash: from the French -- bois-de-vache. Western U.S.--buffalo chips.

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