(TRANSLATION)
 
CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION
 
                         Vals, April 5, 1941
 
Mr. Marshal,
     It was already known that you imprisioned me for
 
having refused, last June, to capitulate and conclude an
 
amistice which deemed incompatible with French honor
 
and interest.
 
     But what will not fail to cause surprise, is that
 
after imprisoning me, seven months later you caused me to 
 
be assailed by all the national broadcasting stations, in
 
connection with a polemic with General de Gaulle.
 
     I should not even have thought I ought to pro-
 
test if this campaign, which, they say, you are going to
 
give the support of your voice, were not based, in the
 
part concerning me, on a series of allegations contrary
 
to truth.
 
     Here are a few examples.
 
     1. It is inexact that it is the British Government
 
which asked that we prosecute the war in North Africa.  You
 
know better than anyone, because you attended the meetings
 
which were held every morning in my office, that this deci-
 
sion had been made by me.  It flowed from the engagement 
 
contracted by the Allies of not abandoning each other, an
 
engagement of which you knew when you entered my Government
 
and which I have no knowledge of your having ever asked me 
 
to denounce.