From Professor Sir Michael Howard Sir: Anthony Torrance's suggestion that
'a new exhibition at the Invalides museum tells an unvarnished story of the Vichy years' is a considerable overstatement. There is in that exhibition one very small showcase containing a few anti-Semitic pamphlets and Jewish identification papers. That is all. There is nothing about the mas- sive deportation of the Jews or the activities of the French police in seeking them out. There are German posters threatening or announcing the shooting of hostages, but no documentation of the massive collabora- tion with the German authorities to which Anthony Torrance quite properly refers.
But there is no reason why there should be. This is not an exhibition about France under the Vichy regime. It is a purely mili- tary project entitled Detocierne guerre mondiale: la France libre, la France corn- battante', and inaugurates the new wing of the Mils& de l'Arrnde named after Gener- al de Gaulle. It gives a balanced and accu- rate account of the achievements of the Frenchmen who did fight, whether in or out of uniform, placing them within the context of the Allied war effort as a whole. It does not exaggerate their achievements, and it is thoroughly fair to all France's allies — not least to the United Kingdom.
Michael Howard
Hungerford, Berkshire
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