Southern France Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 29, 1945, Nice, Alpes Cote D'Azur                                July 1945 the stars and stripes Magazine presiding judge Moi Ribeaux holds an historic defense Counselor Payen Speaks for marshal Bazaine his career ended in Louis Bazaine and Dreyfus like pertain today once stood on the shores of the historic Seine and played leading roles by Richard Lewis stars and stripes writer Nohe Seine flows quietly past the he a de la the Central Island of and the Fisherman sits on its con Crete embankment in the hot Sunshine As frenchmen have sat and fished for cent idly hopeful of at least a Small he is not a Fisherman by but unemployment and hunger have combined to make him they have hooked a big fish Over he they Are playing him but they will land thus he Speaks in a preoccupied Way of the trial of papa Petain in the turreted palais de Justice across the for hundreds of men have fished in the especially when bad times leave them not much else to but the Seine is not a Good River for no one remembers that it Ever it is a much better River for revolutions have surged on its Banks and just beyond the the turbulence of the last six years has flowed into the realm of Ermine Robed his collaboration with totall tartans betrayed the opinion of the his was not the True in Many respects the trial of the aged marshal resembles the great political trials which preceded like four other great trials in Frances betaine Marks a turning Point in French govern Between the French revolution and More than 100 regimes have risen and seven violent revolutions have flared and died and twice the germans have entered but since the Days of the revolution and Louis whose execution became the Symbol of its there has been no single trial which compares so closely with that of the 89yearold Petain As that of Bazaine in like Achille Francois Bazaine was a marshal of had made the army a both he and Cyr officer Rose to marshal during wars with Bazaine was commander in chief of the French army during the War of Petain held the in world War and although Bazaine was charged with losing As a basis for throwing out the entire institution of monarchy and after a Brief trial executed Louis to More strongly symbolize the break with the bringing absolutism Back to France after 150 the nazis for two years tolerated lingering Symbol of French out his hotel government at the old Man was Given nothing to do except to await the Day of his country liberation and his own treason the trial of marshal Bazaine had the same elements of intrigue and military disaster As the Petain Between the two there was another perhaps even More representative of Frances traditional struggle for the acceptance of the doctrine of human this was the trial of Alfred Dreyfus was a rising jewish officer who one in the summer of found himself confronted with the charge of he was accused of Selling Mili tary secrets to Germany and condemned to perpetual confinement on Deves Island after an inconclusive the basis of the evidence against Dreyfus was an Anonymous letter he was accused of having abstracts of the letter were sent from the German embassy and communicated to the French ministry of the known As the was a schedule to certain military Docu ments which the writer hoped to sell to the handwriting experts said that the writer of the unsigned letter had been the treason was but the camouflage that hid a bitter struggle Between Frances top strongly United in the Industry and the and the forces of the which sought to break their vested Liberal whose chief voices were author prosecutor Hornet disputes retains political marshal Henri Philippe to Fisherman As to the world before the War As the hero of and to the men the resistance As an old Man who surrendered France to Germany in is the King fish suddenly flopped on the judges he is accused of having been an enemy of of having surrendered France to the germans in 1940 in order to seize and after doing so of maintaining intelligence with the for his Petain stands As the Symbol of a France returned to the ways of the of a counterrevolutionary France fallen away from the revolution of 1789 and the republicanism it created As the political expression for the doctrine of the rights of Petain few of whom have dared come out into the open and face wrathful Public claim that he acted in 1940 to save the battered French army from further useless they contend that he served in the Vichy government As a Buffer Between the germans and the Defeated French preserving at part of the country from German occupation for two the in his own defense on the first Day of the denied that he had capitalized on Frances defeat to seize the Powers of it was the people of he told the who by their United m National Assembly on july conferred Power in i asked for and desired they begged me to and i he also insisted that the armistice actually contributed to Allied Victory by preserving the French Empire and the Freedom of the White bearded state prosecutor Andre Hornet said the Day before the trial opened retains politics were contrary to the politics of the Franco russian while Petain became a hero in the one which the careers of both ended in Bazaine had no More Confidence to the ability of his troops to withstand the germans in 1870 than Petain had in from in that earlier like Petain in conceived of himself As the ruler of his he proposed a Deal with the germans in which he would use his army to save France from the scheme the French army of the Rhine was Cap tured rapidly while Petain was negotiating surrender in with the failure of the third Empire fell As the third Republic fell 70 years the and the fall of the third Empire brought into being the third which tried Bazaine for Here the parallel for retains Story has not yet been recorded in its finishing Bazaine was condemned to de gradation and death in 1873 by a military the sentence eventually resulted in a commutation to 20 years after several years of which was More like an Bazaine escaped to Italy and then to Spain where he died in the third Republic which convicted Bazaine was ended by Petain it is now the fourth Republic which tries the aged but the first big fish was a the French revolution had tolerated tired Louis Xvi for four years after the great revolution of he was the link be tween revolutionary France and Monar Chist As for a Short was the doubtful Bridge Between the Western democracies and fascist under the conflict of the links Here the republicans mane Vered the King into an open display of opposition to the used that Emile Zola and lawyer Georges rallied to Dreyfus claimed that Dreyfus had been railroaded by a military conservatives took As their motto Vive 1atniee while the liberals shouted Vive la rep oblique with France sharply divided Between left and the Issue boiled for dominating every phase of French political today it is the progressive element of France which Calls for retains forces of resistance which never lost Faith in Frances Resur symbolized by general de working behind the scenes in support of Petain Are remnants of the same military and Industrial oligarchy which handed France to the germans rather than continue the struggle against the forces of nazi five years after he was condemned to devils Dreyfus was Evi Dence finally was accepted which revealed that a count Esterhazy had been the Prin Cipal involved in the attempted Sale of military in the conviction against Dreyfus was quashed and he was restored to the army with the rank of he served through the last world War As a lieutenant colonel under Petain and died in As a new Shadow Fen across Frances Eastern once More the germans were once More France was in once More a marshal was to find once More republicanism broke free and held a trial along the Banks of the to the fishermen of hungry now in a country As impoverished As at time in its a Little fish would con tribute More toward the Noonday meal than convicting the big but trials do not improve the the we Iii flowed past men and events since an is still a much better River fee history than for