GRYNSZPAN CASE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 33, 9 February 1939, Page 5

GRYNSZPAN CASE.

FAMOUS ADVOCATE.

MAITRE DE MORO-GIAFFERI. CORSICAN'S REMARKABLE CAREER. Tim following article sivi-s a clinnii'tiT sk.'tcli of Mnltri- <le MoroCuiffori. tin- ttonlor counsel iif Hip Polish Jew, (SrynHxpnn, wlw sho-f iiiul killed Heir vim Until, n member <if the (iiTinan Kinbassy in Pnris. M. <I<> Muni- • ii.-ifTiTi is :i famous clninieter nt the I'aris Hnr ami lin* been brief c<l in iimiiiiiornlili , causes cclebrcK. (My PHTLTP I'ARR). PARIS, January 7. Evoryone at the Palais —the Palais de .Tiwtice—known him as Muni; hut his full name and designation are Maitru : Kugene-Yiiicent de Moro-Giafferi. For ! barristers, as well as notaries, are called "Maitre" and not '"Monsieur." Some people say tliat ho its really a marquis, but he disclaims any aristocratic title. : In any Ik , is a C'orpicnii and is proud of it. He is ceitainly the most picturesque and outstanding figure at the Paris Bar to-day. Yoimji advocates with their spurs yet to win flock into Court to hear any case in which ho is engaged, and have done so for 2."> yearn; for his spurs wore won early and he i was already a personality before the , war, in which lie was seriously wounded. Spur<, indeed, well describe what he I did win. :ind what makes ]iim formidahle. He is nothing if not aggressive, and it ir. quit<> impossible to shako him (■IT tin- saddle. He cannot be laughed or argued or bullied out of countenance. Von cannot prove him in the wroiijr, because he always returns to the attack with a vigour, a caustic incisiveness, a ready resource, a broad — sometimes very broad —jocularity and a torrential eloquence, which end in beating down all the more solid arguments of his opponent. In the firm case he ever pleaded, hi' claims to have spoken for four hours at a stretch and to have at oin-e established the' reputation for wearing down the judges into agreeing with him from mere lassitude, which lie long afterwards held. It can lx> said of him, as it was said of Alexandre Dumas, whom in some respects he I physically resembles, that lie is one of the forces of nut lire. Always '"On the Boil." When the younger members of his profession crowd to listen to him, however, it is not in <|tiite the same spirit as that in which a generation earlier the.y would have crowded to listen to Henri-Robert, or a generation earlier still, to Labori. the defender of Dreyfus. He has neither the classic style, the golden voice, the patient logic of the former, the devastating oratorical force of the latter, or the great legal elature of either. Those young barristers who go to hear him do so rather in the confident anticipation of excellent entertainment than with the serious intention of enlarging their basis of forensic art or their knowledge of the law, although they also do so with the desire to see how cases can be won by natural wit. by infinite assurance and by pertinacity, as well a« by knowledge of human nature and the skilful application of a wide experience of legal practice. In the earlier days his colleagues may even have treated him rather as a joke; and that is an attitude towards him in private life which, even now, his friends, are tempted to adopt—tempted by his own attitude towards them. But when he won case after case it soon became clear that he must be taken seriously. That brio, that florid quality, that appearance of being always "bouillant" — on the boil —which make him so typical a son of the Midi and could hardly be found in anyone born north of Toulouse or Marseilles, were proving that they covered a very practical capacity for obtaining favourable, verdicts from juries and favourable, decisions from judges, the last of whom, in any case, were not likely to be taken in by mere clap-trap or by the attempts to browbeat them which they sometimes had severely to repress. Those who listen to Moro to-day are still confident of good entertainment, and they get it. He still tries to browbeat judges, and they still have to repress him. He is still florid and still caustic. But all this fermentation is. now taken as a stimulant rather than an annoyance on the one hand or an absurdity on the other. For Moro is recognised not only as a temperamental force and a-s an actor of an amiziugly varied talent, but as a masterly tactician and also as possessing a far greater legal equipment than he allows to appear upon the surface. His Dominating Hooked Nose. Moro-Giafferi. the man, is typically what you would expect from a knowledge of his character as an advocate. He is now 00 years old, but although his curly black hair ie receding a little from his expansive forehead, he might pass otherwise as a man of 40. None of your lean and bony ascetics, his figui'e —and he is hardly above middle height —is on the contrary almost rotund, large especially in the hi|w,' which gives him the very characteristic walk, almost of a peacock, which is accentuated by his habit of advancing with his head well thrown back. The full cheeke, the double chin—which he must have acquired at an early age —the thick neck behind the stiff collar and the fleshy hands, are all those of a man who does not disdain the material pleasures and coinforte of life, who

cares for wood food and jrood company; iilld indeed there are few who better enjoy the presence of their friend*, who can better ap|ireciate jrood cookinp. who deliiiht more in ji uiiod story and can tell one better. His dark, roiind eyes— only occasionally veiled by the pincenez which lie usually hold* between two tinkers to point liis argument—shine "lit of a face whose extreme pallor i« still further accentuated by a dark and rather full but sleekly-trimmed moustache, half hidinjr a rather thick-lipped mouth. Hut the dominating feature of the face, the feature which mark* the whole personality and -rives it a force almost sujr-jetitinp that of a bird, is the very hooked nose, what is sometimes called a Komaii nose. Add to this visual appearance a voice which is neither full nor deep, but can vary at will between the shattering * and almost raspinplv incisive, the powerful and also the suave, and you have something of the physical impression of the man. Some Famous Cases. Itis career at the bar be-ran at the aye of 20. and success, as I have said came to him early. He took all sorts of cases. criminal and civil. from murders to divorces, and from Labour quarrels to financial disputes. It was by the competence which lie showed in the intricacies of a case of this last kind that he made one of his first approaches to notoriety. He defended Henri Rochefort. He saved the neck of one of the prisoners in the trial of the '"Bande Honnot." Later he acted for M. Caillaux and also for Charles Humbert, the senator, durinjr the war, and after it he was the advocate of the murderer, Landru. and of Madame Bessarabo. He has not devoted much of his time to politics; but he entered the Chamber of Deputies in l!>10 as a Radical, and lie was I'nder-Secretarv for technical education in the first Herriet Government of 1024.—(K.A.X.A.)