PETAINISM - Louis ROUGIER (1889-1982, intellectual and philo - Lot 230

PETAINISM - Louis ROUGIER (1889-1982, intellectual and philosopher, claimed in a 1945 book, "Les accords secrets-britanniques - Histoire et imposture", to have met secretly (on the Marshal's instructions) with Lord Halifax, then British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, on October 24, 1940, the very day of the Montoire Interview, in order to assure Great Britain that France would never reverse its alliances; These assertions were denied by the British Government, and it was considered that this supposed treaty was merely a strategy used by the Marshal's defense to support the thesis of a "double game" by Vichy) / Exceptional autograph letter signed, 2 p large in-8, on his letterhead, New York, October 31, 1945, to Bâtonnier Fernand Payen, one of Marshal Pétain's lawyers - He has just received the minutes of the Marshal's trial and would like to make a few comments: while he believes that Admiral Fernet's testimony was correct, he judges that General Weygand's memory was faulty; "however painful the trial may have been, it was a good thing that it shed light on two points: the so-called political conspiracy and the question of the validity of the armistice"; "I was struck, I must say, by your courage and that of your two assessors. By daring to place the blame on those who refused the hand extended to them with a view to achieving concord, you saved the honor of the bar"; "If I have been so sober with my letters, it's because I didn't want to embarrass anyone. We can forgive the Vichysois, even the most marked Doriotlâtres or deserting Communists, but there is one irreversible crime, and that is to have been a member of the Resistance outside the obedience of a certain clique. I know for myself that I am marked by this indignity (nb: Rougier feels that his opposition to General de Gaulle is unforgivable).