Isaac Mendes-France, member of a prominent Bayonne Jewish family, Under-Secretary of Finance in the Popular Front Cabinet of Leon Blum and the first French politician to be court-martialed by a Vichy tribunal, reached London today after a miraculous escape from France.
Shortly after the surrender of the French army Mendes-France fled to Morocco with other prominent members of the Reynaud cabinet aboard the steamer Massilia, which sailed from Le Verdon. Apprehended in Casablanca by the Vichy authorities, he was returned to France and sentenced to six years imprisonment on the charge of desertion. Last June he succeeded in escaping from the Clermont-Ferrand military hospital where he was being held. His appearance in London is the first that has been heard of him since his escape.
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