Of the sufferings of our army, the radio brought yesterday the following statement: "Reynaud, a docile tool in the hands of Churchill, thought that it was not useless to sacrifice thousands of French lives in order to allow the English to re-embark and to destroy their materiel." In form, that is Fardonnet. Let us pass over that. In substance, that is one of the gravest accusations that can be directed against the former head of a French government. You know that it is false. You know that, far from being willing to sacrifice French lives uselessly while awaiting for the long periods (a week, in fact) required for the conclusion of an armistice, I proposed, on the contrary, a surrender similar to that of the Dutch army and the continuation of the combat beside our allies, at sea and in our Empire. You know that, on the first point, I had convinced you, since at the cabinet meeting held on June 15th at Bordeaux you left the council chamber, at my request, to go to General Weygand and try to convince him, and that you failed, which would have led me to relieve him of his command if, at that same meeting, the cabinet had not declared itself for the principle of the armistice. You know, from having been present at the meetings of the Supreme Council held in France, that, far from having |