Eighty Years Ago This Week

   The trial of Marshal Petain on charges of treason opened in Paris. He had bowed to the advice of his de fence lawyers and wore the uniform of a Marshal of France, adorned only with the Medaille Militaire (a decoration only available to the most junior and most senior soldiers). He declined to carry his Marshal's baton.   Petain affected to be too deaf to follow what was said but he had been observed listening attentively to significant points in the opening proceedings. The first witness was Paul Reynaud, who as prime minister had brought Petain into the government. Reynauld was attempting to justify his own conduct as much as anything and his testimony was hostile.  The Belgian monarchial crisis continued as parliament voted on an extension of the regency. The prime minister Achille van Acker declared that the king was incapable of reigning following his actions during the war, in practice calling for his abdication. He also accused the king of failing to pu...

    The leaders of the "Big Three" nations - Britain, the Soviet Union and the USA  met for their final summit conference. It was visibly the end of an era. There was a new US president and Churchill's future was in the balance pending the count for the general election which had just taken place. As Churchill had invited the Labour leader Clem Attlee to attend, it was certain that  the prime minister who would be responsible to enacting the conference's decisions would be there, but a question mark hung over who it would be. The previous summits had debated the conduct of the war but now the agenda covered largely the future of defeated Germany. A further element of unreality was also present at Potsdam. The first test of a nuclear weapon was due to take place; by some accounts President Truman had tried to delay the conference so as to know the result of the  Trinity (as the test was codenamed)  with the attendant implications for the balance of power. Tr...

    With a large increase in the number of voters since the last general election in 1935 it was especially hard to call the result of the 1945 vote. To give time for the votes of electors serving overseas to be counted, it would be another three weeks before the result was published.  Labour was in confident mood after polling day on the basis of detailed canvasses although the Conservatives were still on a formidable majority of seats won in 1935. Labour leadership talked in terms of winning 100 seats and many of the 25 new constituencies. This would put them within striking distance of enough MPs to form the government. The Conservatives were nervous that a vigorous campaign by the Liberals had translated to proper three-way fights in constituencies which would work to the government's disadvantage. Political debate in France was dominated by the question of the consitution. De Gaulle preferred a simple reversion to the 1875 constitution of the Third Republic but ...