ABSTRACT
The witness was Albert Lebrun, the president of the Third Republic. His testimony in the trial, he said, would be modest. In so saying, Lebrun was himself more than modest. Mornet had asked Pierre Laval why he had not acted like Clemenceau on the Somme. Laval, Lebrun said, had entered the government on June 23, that is to say, after the Armistice had been signed. The cabinet meeting of the Third Republic was held on July 8 and Pierre Laval presented the proposed law which would be considered by the National Assembly. Under Mornet's questioning, Lebrun told how Marshal Petain had submitted to him, president, and a list of the proposed cabinet members in the new government. That list included Laval as foreign minister. But on the advice of the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Laval's name had been dropped because it might be offensive to Britain.
