DREYFUS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 160, 8 July 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

DREYFUS.

REVISION AT LAST IN SIGHT.

IMPRESSIVE SCENE IN THE HIGH

COURT.

(From Our London Correspondent.)

LONDON, June 2,

What the Tichborne case was to

England in the seventies I'Affaire Dreyfus is to France to-day. Everybody talks about it, though few have grasped the essential facts of the story, and fewer still followed,the perplexing mazes of assertion and counter assertion. England made up

her mind long ago—l believe rightly— that Dreyfus was innocent. Nevertheless some very shrewd people—notably Mr Labouchere —still profess themselves .unconvinced.

On Monday last the Dreyfus case reached one of its periodical crises, the United Court of Cassation, or Supreme Court, sitting to receive Mons. Ballot-Beaupres'. report on Madame Dreyfus' claim for revision. Mrs Crawford says: —

"The entrance of the court was like a cathedral procession. There were forty-six judges in all. They, of course, wore crimson robes, ermine and velvet caps, gold embroidered. President Mazeau. had on his right M. Loew, President of the Criminal Chamber, and on his left M. Tanon, President of the Chamber of Petitions. Behind them were a privileged number of spectators. When the fortysix judges were seated the case for the revision of the Dreyfus trial was called on. and leave given to M. Ballot-Beaupre to read his report. This he did in a clear ringing voice. M. Ballot-Beaupre looks clever. He is a first-rate man of a second-rate class. What strikes one is the harmony of his person, and much that shows a good balance of his faculties. He has a very well formed mouth. Though wide it does not look so. His diction is simply perfect. He brought out points for and against Dreyfus with impartial clearness. He remained clear and cold as pure water. His task to-day was to sum up, to group, to classify, to give the kernel of the documents in his bulky portfolio. He summarised the D'Ormescheville report, the statements of Picquart, and, so to speak, skimmed the cream of the evidence taken before the Criminal Chamber. His fairness could not have gone further. He seemed as though he wished for the evidence he summarised to speak so well for itself that he could only give his own conclusions for form's sake. This was impressive. Towards the close the evidence in favour of revision gathered strength and compelled the hearers to say tp themselves, 'Why, everything cleafs Dreyfus. There is absolutely nothing against him.'"

The majority of the Paris correspondents agree in considering M. BallotBeaupre's report quite as conclusively favourable to Dreyfus as the rejected one of M. Bard. It opened with a statement of the unfortunate officer's unimpeachable antecedents and then went On to consider his conduct when this shocking charge was sprung upon him. On being taken to prison he spoke to Colonel Henry, who accompanied him, and said, "This odious accusation is the death of my life. I must have justice done to me." Interrogated by Dv Raty, he asseverated that he had never had relations with any foreign Embassy, and that he had never handed over any document concerning the national defence. When confronted with the bordereau Dreyfus exclaimed, "They have stolen my handwriting." Again, there was the report made by Major d'Armescheville to the court-martial which tried and condemned Dreyfus. That report mentioned, but when taxed with the delivery Of the secret documents referred to in the bordereau, the accused declared that he had never seen the 120 short gun in action, that he knew nothing about its behaviour in use, and that he was equally ignorant until the month of July of the new arrang-e-----ments concerning the covering troops. Moreover, he had never had the firing manual in his possession, and he knew nothing of notes on Madagascar. To Major d'Armescheville he said on one occasion, "It is more than sis weeks since I was sent to this cell. I swear to yoh that I am innocent. I am the son of an Alsatian who protested against the German occupation, and I have given up everything to serve France. I am still Worthy to lead her soldiers under fire. The martyrdom which I am undergoing is frightful."

M. Ballot-Beaupre quoted other passages of the same report, some relating to the supposed relations of Dreyfus with married women and others referring to the character of the accused. Major d'Armescheville came to the conclusion that Dreyfus, being endowed with L a suppleness of character, arid a strong tendency to obsequiousness, was just the man to practice espionage. One striking- passage in the report was the textual reproduction of the conversation briefly narrated above between Henry and \ the prisoner immediately after the hitter's arrest, when they were on the way to Cherche Midi. As they got into the carriage , Dreyfus said to Henry: .'"'',

"Major, it is terrible. lam accused of ar_'awful thing." " ;

Henry replied, "Of what awful thing are you speaking? What is it all about?- Tell me about your case."

The following dialogue then ensued:

"Major, I am accused of the crime of high treason."

"The devil! But why?"

"I know 1 nothing about it. lam out of my wits. I would rather have a bullet in my head. I am not guilty. This charge is the death of my life."

"If you are not guilty you must not lose yohr head. An innocent man is always strong. Have you any family?".

"Yes, I have a wife and children. I am well off. Major, I must have justice done me."

"That is not in my province, but you will certainly have justice. Do you know of what you are accused?"

"Yes. Major Dv Paty de Clam has told me that I am accused of having given documents to a foreign Power."

"What documents? Don't you know anything of them?" ' ■'

"No. Major Dv Paty de Clam only spoke to me of secret and confidential documents, without anything more. I replied that J had had many documents in my hand's while I was at the General Stat?, but that; I.had never given up any to anybody." ' M. de Ballot-Beupre then went on to speak of the situation irom a legal

— ' ga ■' I standpoint, and dismissed the cpn- : tradictory evidence of the handwriting experts as unworthy of consideration. After speaking of the arrest of Colonel Henry and the really tragic scene which took place when Colonel Henry, after parting from his wife and child, set out for Mont Valerien, the learned counsel's statement called attention to two fresh forgeries, one | resulting from an erasure and the j insertion of the letter D in a note written by a foreign military attache, and the other resulting from the misinterpretation of the cypher telegram of Major Panizzardi, of November 2, ; 1984. Counsel argued that revision should be granted on the ground ot : the fact that the evidence given by Henry and dv Paty de Clam had been proved to be false, though these superior officers had not been prosej cuted for perjury.

M. Ballot-Beaupre^ after further analyses of the discredited bordereau went on to consider the question o 6 motive, and read the police reports furnished by M. Guene, all unfavourable to Dreyfus, and those of the Prefecture of Police, declaring that there was really a confusion between Captain Dreyfus and others of the same name -who frequented clubs. He next asked if Dreyfus could have acted the traitor out of anger or disappointed ambition, and pointed out that Dreyfus at the age of 35 had before hint the finest prospect of an excellent military career. On the other hand, Esterhazy, a soldier of fortune, was always a beggar at the Temple, of Money. The learned counsel, with great emphasis, read some letters of Esterhazy, abusing- France and her Army, which evidently produced a deep impression on the audience. Reference was also made to he request for money made by Esterhazy on June 21, 1894, to Baron de Rothschild, to whom he wrote that if his application were refused he would have no resource but to kill his family and himself afterwards. Such was his language on the eve of the date on which the bordereau was "placed." The inference to be drawn was that he sought in treason the resources which were necessary for his life of dissipation. Esterhazy had himself admitted having given information in order to obtain other information in exchange, and had owned to having relations with foreign officers. If the arm of justice had been more or less rendered impotent in regard to Esterhazy, who had been already acquitted of the authorship, of thfe bordereau, it was none the less the dujty xtf the Supreme Court to restore" liberty to an innocent man, unjustly condemned.