Eighty years ago this week Petain goes on trial

  

The trial of Marshal Petain on charges of treason opened in Paris. He had bowed to the advice of his defence 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 purge dubious members of his household. A visit to Brussels by Princess Elizabeth was cancelled.

Churchill and Attlee returned to Britain from the Potsdam conference so as to be present for the announcment of the general election which would decide which of them would go back as prime minister. Insofar as Britain was truly relevant  to the post war world, discussion would be able to resume in substantial form.

US Congress ratified the Bretton Woods agreement for the organisation of financial markets and currencies despite the objections of Senator Taft. Taft saw the agreement as an unneccessary impingement on US sovereignty. This was a last hurrah for classic US isolationism and, whilst the full Bretton Woods system was replaced in 1976, it has since been accepted that international agreement in some form is required to regulate the world economy.