FRANCE AND ITS ARMY.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 75, 26 September 1898, Page 4

FRANCE AND ITS ARMY.

The latest news of the Dreyfus affair is even more serious than any that has preceded it. The .underhand means by which General Zurlindeu appears to have secured the prosecution of Colonel Picquart reveals an unscrupulous animosity against Dreyfus's supporters on the part of certain Army chiefs. The judicial commission set up to enquire into the dossier of the Dreyfus trial aud to report on the case being reopened in the Court of Cassation has had no definite result, the members being equally divided on the question of the legal right to a re-trial. Paris, after the disclosures made, is not likely to get over its state of ferment until the innocence or guilt of the unfortunate prisoner on the He dv Diable is cleariy pi'oved in open Court to the satisfaction of civilians and soldiers alike. There seems little doubt that France for the time is in the handß of the Army, and there is some reason in M. Clemenceau's declaration that the country is being seized by a military caste. Whether Dreyfus will ultimately be proved innocent or guilty, the case plainly shows that the Army can dominate politics and even the Judiciary. The situation is grave in the extreme, and it only requires a powerful military leader to re-erect a Csesarisra on the ruins of the Republic. If the Dreyfus - Esterhazy mystery is not laid bare, and the public; mind relieved from the excitement of conflicting statements, the danger of serious complications in Prance is very great. Freedom is impossible in any country dominated by a military caste. It matters vei*3 r little what form its political institutions may assume ; so long as its sheetanchor is its arm3 r it cannot be truly democratic, and must always have within it a constant nursery of despots.