MARGINAL ,COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON T is strange indeed that Pierre Laval, having for a quarter of a
century infected French politics with the poisons of his own putrescence, should have continued to harm his copntry even when brought to trial and execution. This malign cuttle-fish, whose tentacles have for so long entwined themselves with subtle gropings in and out of the lobbies of the Palais Bourbon, succeeded at the very moment of his extinction in emitting a spurt of venom, which has left behind it an inky cloud. There are those who suspect that the trial was brought to a hurried conclusion for purely electoral purposes. There are those who believe that the summary procedure which was in the end adopted was due to some fear that Laval in his defence would implicate important figures in the political life of France and other countries. The fact that in order to face the firing-squad he was resuscitated from an abortive suicide seemed to add a touch of cruelty to an ill-managed condemnation and aroused in many minds a feeling of shocked sympathy. Laval's own genius for opportunism, his amazing gift for twisting momentary circum- stances into a pattern of permanent principle, created the impression that what was in fact an act of justice had in some way taken the shape of political revenge. With the result that this man, who was assuredly guilty of high treason, is deemed by many people to have been executed only for a political error. It is not for us in this country to criticise the procedure which was followed; French justice may not always be as impassive as British justice, but it is frequently more human. And whatever may have been said in this island regarding the conduct of the Laval trial is as nothing com- pared to the scathing criticism of the French Press itself.
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