PHILIPPE PETAIN

"FATHER OF HIS PEOPLE"

Frenchman, you whose mind is so critical, have you sometimes dreamt of what the Marshal represents for our country? 

For us, our most cherished desire is to be able to convey our admiration and our loyalty to this "FATHER OF THE PEOPLE", whom Providence sent us when torments raged in our country. 

Admiration because, despite his great age, he has not hesitated to sacrifice his tranquillity and his personal interests to the cause of the people and because, in response to the appeal from the nation, when everyone had abandoned his post, and when the people responsible had fled before the disaster that they had prepared for us, he dressed the wounds of this France that he loved so much. 

Loyalty, because we understood his aim and the difference between commanding an army and governing a nation, especially in circumstances such as those that we are passing through now, when each one of our institutions must be recreated. 

Admiration and loyalty towards the saviour of the country should tomorrow become the motto of all true French people, as there will again be troubled times when that which we believed to have been destroyed will appear anew to rekindle the fires and sow discord, but they will be brief and this time those responsible will be punished. 

That is why we should remember the words: "ADMIRATION AND LOYALTY", for they are synonyms for the safeguarding of our country and represent for the first time since the fall of the monarchy the strength through unity of the French people gathered around the same chief: Philippe PETAIN, "FATHER OF HIS PEOPLE". 

PIERRE DE FRANCE. 

From ‘Vaincre’ No. 1, 21 September 1942, page 3.

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