ABSTRACT
In a forceful speech delivered on 30 October he set the seal of official approval upon the politics of collaboration. Public disquiet made it difficult for him not to explain his position. Montoire, he declared, was a free meeting in the course of which 'a collaboration between our two countries has been envisaged'. Petain stressed that the honour of France was safe, that his objective had been to maintain French unity, and at the same time to take up a position 'within the framework of the constructive activity of the new European order'.2
