ECHO OF THE WAR

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18671, 21 April 1926, Page 9

ECHO OF THE WAR

CONFESSION BY FRENCH GENERAL. CABINET MINISTER CLEARED. (BT CABLE—PHESS ASSOCIATION —COPTBIGHT.) (AUSTBALHH AND HZ, CABLE ABSOCIATIOX.) (Received April 20th, 0.0 p.m./ PARIS. April 20. France has been startled by the dramatic confession of General Messiny that he, and not M. ex-Min-ister of the Interior, who has just resigned, was in love with .Mile Mntaliari, the spy. M. Malvv was suspected because the love letters discovered were signed M—y. When M. Malvy resigned office, a woman journalist wrote to General Messiny, who was War Minister in 1914, asking him to clear up the mystery. General Messiny replied: ''Fourteen years ago Mile Mataliari tried with all the incomparable seductive powers she possessed to make me her lover. I found her charming, but full of mystery, and, tempting as she was, disquieting. I had tho imprudence tp tell her so in writing." General Messiny added that he hoped tho adventure would serve as a. lesson to young deputies. The confession clears M. Malvy after a miscarriage of justice, recalling the Dreyfus case. [Mile Matahari was one of the few women shot during the war. She was a well-known dancer, and was employed by the German Secret Service on the outbreak of war to secure military intelligence from high Frenph officials. The discovery of her activities led to her execution by the French.]