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September 29, 1943 is the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Munich pact. By now the entire world is in agreement that for the French and British the pact was the greatest diplomatic defeat in modern history. But it was not an isolated defeat. It was the culmination of a series of shameful submissions that began in 1936 when German troops entered the demilitarized Rhineland and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain found it was natural for the Germans to reoccupy territory which they had been forced to cede.

The article presents information about Charles Maurras, the publisher of "l'Action Francaise," who is perhaps the best known among the newspapermen who contributed to the victory of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in France. Unchallenged by the French Republic, Maurras committed treason with such boldness that his example lent courage to other journalists who took their orders -- and their pay -- from Berlin, Rome, and later Madrid. His power is partly to be explained by the richness of his vocabulary, which dazzles the illiterate and; even more, the semi-literate. Only educated men who are not blinded by political fanaticism see how shoddy is the intellectual merchandise his vocabulary sells.

Last week London newspapers carried the report that Georges Mandel, the former French Cabinet Minister, had died in a German concentration camp. If the account of his death which has come to the author from France is true, he began to vomit blood after his first meal in the fortress of K&oouml;nigstein, to which he had recently been removed, and died soon afterward in great agony. He had apparently been poisoned. The author first made the acquaintance of Georges Mandel in 1903 when the author was parliamentary editor of L'Aurore.

The French generals provide the key to the North African situation, which seems to brighten for a moment and then once more darkens into obscurity. In analyzing the problems of political warfare which have arisen in the first territory to be occupied by American troops, it is therefore of the greatest importance that people should keep in mind the psychology and traditional mentality of these men. The case of General Charles Nogues, Resident General of Morocco, provides a striking illustration of the "Vichyism" to be found among many French military and civil functionaries. Are these men supporters of the "New Order," admirers of Hitler and Mussolini? Most of them are not. They are opportunists of the smallest caliber, trying to hang on to their jobs at all costs for the sake of the comfortable pensions they carry. General Nogues was filled with dreams of personal ambition when the German armies invaded France. At that time he believed, it may be said to his credit, that the French government would move to Africa and would delegate to him supreme military power.