26 OCTOBER 1945, Page 10

Such actions could not have been explained away as mere

errors in political foresight ; they constituted definite acts conceived with the dual purpose of destroying the Republican constitution and using his resultant dictatorship for the benefit of France's enemies. If ever there were actions of high treason these assuredly were such actions ; upon the last two counts alone he would have merited sentence of death. The fact that his trial was incompetently conducted, and that both the judge and the jury displayed animus, should not blind us to the essential fact that Pierre Laval was a very guilty man. For his own advantage he sold his fellow-citizens to the enemy ; and for that he deserved to be shot.