Trial by Trial

Everybody had refused. Industrialists refused to speed up production; Communists refused to work; the Military Command refused to think; the Government refused to act.

Thus did the defendants in Riom's "war guilt" trial testify last week. It had all been a sorry mess; French logic had to admit it. Even Presiding Judge Pierre Caous shrugged his shoulders, sighed, looked off into space.

Not so the Germans. To them the Riom trial was becoming an "international scandal." It was proving why the French were not able to knock the Germans back to Berlin in 1940. But it was not showing, as it was supposed to show, that guilty, warmongering France was prepared for her proper place in Europe's "New Order." From D.N.B.'s diplomatic correspondent in Berlin came an almost frenzied reminder that "whether this or that politician or this or that general is responsible for defeat is immaterial." The question, said D.N.B., is: "'Why did France declare war' on Germany, knowing full well the Fuehrer's desire for peace?"

This made-in-Germany straw was apparently too much for the Riom court, which thought it was trying a case, not standing trial itself. At week's end the court barred all reporters, went into its first secret session.

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