THE DREYFUS SENSATION.

Evening Post, Volume LIV, Issue 152, 24 December 1897, Page 2

THE DREYFUS SENSATION.

The "Dreyfus-scandal is said to be creating great excitement in France, and we can believe it, for it menaces the judicial arrangements of the Army, which affect every man in the population. Captain Dreyfus, a Jewish officer, was accused of selling to a foreign Government certain secrets of importance included in the plans for the mobilisation of the Army. He was tried by a secret court-martial of highly-placed officers, found Guilty, and sentenjjpl to transportation for life to a French pemu settlement. There wai a suspicion

about this case from the first, the vague idea being that Captain Dreyfus, being a Jew, had been selected as a scape-goat to hide men much more guilty than himself. M. Soheurer-Kestner, a Vice-President of the Senate, and a man of the highest character, who never saw Captain Dreyfus in his life, now says that he has proof positive of that officer's innocence, and that he will, as soon as his proofs are ready for publication, insist on the rehabilitation of the victim either of circumstances or of foul play. It is expected that if the proofs are as complete as M. Soheurer-Kestner believes, the military administration will compromise with Captain Dreyfus on condition of silence ; but the affair^ will call out comments in the most dangerous of all places, the soldiers' barracks. The French are only too ready to suspect that they are betrayed— the secret of the preposterous spy-mania. THE QKEAT BTEIKE. The Employers' Federation will win in the engineers' quarrel, for the resources of the men are exhausted, and the Executive of the Amalgamated Society has put out a manifesto admitting that to carry the contest to a successful issue they must have aid to the, amount of £10,000 a week. That is £620,000 a year, which they certainly will not get. It is folly to suppose that an army can be supported by subscriptions. The masters ought, therefore, to be most conoiliatory; but we deeply regret to perceive signs that they are, now that they are in sight of victory, inclined to push their advantage too far. They are probably in the right in refusing the eighthour day, as weighting them too much in their competition with foreigners, and certainly in the right in insisting that machines shall be regarded as allies, and not as enemies ; but they are wrong in attempting to break up the Unions. They deny the attempt, but they are clearly considering pjans for making subscriptions to new and local insurance funds a peremptory condition of work; and that scheme if it succeeded, even partially, would deprive the Unions of their main " resources." They will find, we fear, in no long time that organised bodies, even when the}' are a little fractious, are easier to deal with than angry mobs. Certainly they will make the task of government very difficult. The Union workmen are voters, and though they cannot rule elections — that is one of their many arithmetical illusions — they can disorganise the existing Parties. THE 'SCHOOLS QUESTION. Mr. Balfour, speaking at Norwich on Thursday, made a thoughtful and yet confident defence of the Government. He warned the Nonconformists that if they succeeded in destroying the voluntary schools they would not be left " with Boardschools after their own hearts and no voluntary schools as rivals," If voluntary schools are abolished "you will be driven sooner or later to withdraw those words in the Act of 1870 which prevent denominational education in Board schools." After dealing with foreign affairs and with India, Mr. Balfour fell upon a very notable slip made by Lord Rosebery in his Free Trade speech. Lord Eosebery's contention that we must not have an Imperial Zollverein because it would be objected to by Foreign Powers was not, he declared, " an argument which should ever be heard in the mouth of a British statesman." That is absolutely true. Meantime we note with no little satisfaction that Mr. Balfour did not in any way commit himself to the proposal for building a tariff-wall round the Empire. Most certainly we must not be Freetraders with the world from fear of foreign nations, but simply and solely because that is the onty policy consistent with our greatness and prosperity and the happiness of our people. PBETENDED MAGIC ON THE NIGER COAST. The officials on the Niger Coast are anxious to make friends with the Aro tribe, who possess a city called Bendi, which is, in a way, sacred, and full of secret fetishes'. Major Leonard and Mr. F. James were accordingly despatched to Bendi last December to visit the city, where they were amicably received, and placed under a protective taboo. In order to ensure their safety the headman opened a soda-water bottle as the English fetish, and as it went pop the chiefs fled, declaring that they could not contend with " the English god in the bottle." The same effect was produced on the officers' return whenever the bottle was displayed. Most things are permissible to men who explore, taking their lives in their hands; but General Gordon, or the late General Havelook, or Lord Clyde, if the story is true, would have given those two officers a very sharp lesson on their duty as English Christians. If we cannot acquire trade without inventing evidence that we are idolaters of the most depraved type, we had better go without palm-oil. Africa seems to taint even our best men. THE FOTUBE OF BHODESIA. The opening ceremony of the Buluwayo Eailway took place on Thursday. Sir Alfred Milner, the High Commissioner, arrived in the official train at noon, and after receiving and replying to an address, and reading a message of congratulation from the Colonial Secretary, he completed the proceedings by decorating Trooper Henderson with the Victoria Cross and two other troopers with the Distinguished Service Order. Mr. Rhodes was not present at the opening. The official statement is that this was "solely due to his medical adviser's fears that travelling and the excitement of the present moment might cause a return of the heart affection supervening upon fever, from which, however, Mr. Rhodes has now completely recovered." Now that the railway has reached, Buluwayo and crushing machinery can be brought up, the solution of the question whether there is or is not gold in Rhodesia cannot be any longer delayed. Our strong advice to all investors is to keep their purse-strings tight till crushings have taken place and they know whether or not there is paving gold. They must not assume that there is gold merely because it will now be possible to get up machinery.