Laval a dreamer and nationalist

By LORD LONGFORD
Laval by lauhert Cole (Heinemann 35s.).
AVAL is a name that has become odious in the minds of Englishmen. It is not difficult to see why after reading this clear-sighted, yet moving biography, Laval had no love for England. " France " said he, " has never had and never will have a more rabid enemy than Great Britain. All our history is there to prove it. We have been nothing but playthings in the hands dl England, who has used us to ensure her own protection. Today we are at the bottom of the abyss to which she has led us."
That was said in July 1940, not long after our destruction of the French ships at Mers-el-Kebir. Nine years earlier, by his personal initiative, he had provided us with financial help at a crucial moment. But in fact his feelings were cold towards all countries except France, for whom the genuineness of his passion cannot he doubted. Nor, for that matter, can his devotion to his wife and daughter, who reciprocated it to the full.
Unusual
He was that unusual phenomenon, a nationalist pacifist. lie was always looking for a way to athance France's interests by preventing a war, or stopping a war. In such a starch the ordinary scruples and the interests of other countries were not important. It would be ridiculous to refer to him as "pro-Cierman", let alone "proNati".
He was always pro-French. Not to mention pro-Laval; but he was not unique in his egotism. Many years ago it was said that "real statesmen are governed by two motives only: love or country and love of power". By that standard he was quite a statesman, but it is not a standard which in fact we approtc when we see it applied too blatantly. And there was also something unreal in the dreams of this would-be realist, which plunged him into destruction and tragedy.
For example. on one occasion he was recalling sonic fiery moments and explained: "My secret at such a time is to believe myself big. The more perilous the situetion, the more inaccessible the person I am talking to, the bigger 1 feel". It is part of Mr. Cole's achievement to bring out the gaiety and. indeed. the attraction of Laval. while never condoning for a moment his lack of principle in conduct.
In the end he was, in spite of all his efforts to outwit es cry body. much more used than using: and at the very end, much more sinned against than sinning. After he was condemned to death he took enough poison to kill himself. But he was stomach-pumped seventeen times, so that he could be dragged off to the place of execution.
Atrocity His last words did him credit. As his gallant lawyers moved back out of range, Laval called to them: Stay where you arc so that I may see you as 1 die; you have good faces-. And then as the rifles pointed at him. "Vise la France!" If any consolation is to be extracted from this final atrocity, it lies perhaps in the fact that it was not till after the attempted suicide and the stomach pumping that he was ready to make his peace with God.
At that point they guessed that he was asking for a priest. "The prison chaplain. with whom Laval had often joked about his lack of faith during the past week, leaned over the bed on which Laval was now propped up in a halfsitting position and said: "Monsieur le President, this is perhaps the moment to pray and to ask God for forgiveness of your sins". In a harsh whisper. Laval answered: "Yes". It must be admitted that he added. with a flash of his old defiance. "It would be a good thing if the others asked God's forgiveness, too". As so often. his words contained an element of obvious truth.