How Else, Monsieur?

There are 1,500,000 civil servants in France and most of them are underpaid. Handsome Pierre Houdard, police commissioner of suburban St.-Cloud, considered himself especially underpaid after he met Betty Coujean. When Betty became his mistress, and Pierre had to support his wife, seven-year-old son and Betty on 13,000 francs ($108) a month, that settled it. Betty, the wife of a racketeer Pierre had put in jail, showed Pierre how he could cover up for a ring of automobile thieves, and make lots of francs.

Last week Pierre and Betty were both in a Paris jail, their racket uncovered.

Chief of Criminal Police Georges Clot recalled that Houdard had been in the Maquis. "He had to live off the land; that meant that often he did things that were not exactly legal. He doesn't seem to have gotten out of the habit."

Said Madame Houdard: "In no way do I excuse my husband's acts. He was a police official, and more than any others his duty was to remain an honest man."

But a fellow St.-Cloud police officer was more tolerant, Said he: "How else would you have it, monsieur? They loved each other."

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