Caudal Capacity

The President of France's High Court of Justice pondered a broad question: how wide are the average newspaper correspondent's buttocks? The answer was crucial, for it was desired to cram as many reporters as possible into seats at the trial of Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, which opens this week in Paris. Estimates ranged from 15 to 25 inches of seating space required per correspondent. But at last the middle way (an allowance of 20 inches) was decided upon--a figure which should seat 40 French and 40 foreign newsmen.

At the preliminary examination of evidence for the Petain trial, documents were adduced showing that he proposed: 1) a Vichy force to fight the Free French in Africa; 2) use of the French fleet against Britain; 3) French intervention on Germany's side after the Dieppe raid (1942). Petain repudiated every document that did not bear his signature, professed loss of memory about those that did.

British Deal? In Montrouge Fortress, the old man indicated that he would base his defense largely on a purported deal with the British in 1940, whereby Petain agreed to keep the Germans pacified while doing his best to stave off their encroachments. Petain's attorney cited a book, The Accords between Petain and Churchill, recently published in Canada by an intermediary, Louis Rougier, onetime philosophy professor at the University of Besanc,on. The British have denied the authenticity of key documents reproduced in Professor Rougier's book.

Exceedingly anxious that nothing shall happen to Petain while his trial is in progress, French officials are taking great care to provide him with proper exercise and food. His physician was reassuring last week, saying that the 89-year-old marshal has "the physique of a man of 60."

Now the Little Men. French justice has now dealt with more than 20,000 small-time "kollabos" (collaborators). Among over 17,000 convictions were some 1,000 death sentences and 600 life terms at hard labor. But 30,000 more suspects are still awaiting trial.

Only a few major Vichyites remain to be tried. Pierre Laval, whose removal from Barcelona to Paris has been rumored several times, was still in Montjuich Fortress. His self-prepared defense, it was said, boiled down to "I was mistaken, I am sorry."

"Why Die for Danzig?" Marcel Deat, onetime professor, onetime editor of L'Oeuvre, Vichy Minister of Labor, who was believed to be hiding somewhere in Germany, was sentenced to death in absentia. Deat, who sent hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen to German slavery, was the man who coined the slogan: "Why die for Danzig?"

Joseph Darnand, infamous Vichy Minister of the Interior, was caught at the home of a friend in Edolo, Italy. He was taken to Paris in handcuffs, looking like a Bolshevik of the unprosperous period (see cut).

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