Evening Post. SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1914. FRENCH POLITICAL INTRIGUE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 121, 23 May 1914, Page 4

Evening Post. SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1914. FRENCH POLITICAL INTRIGUE

The anticipated wrecking of the French (Doumergue) Government, by the Socialist vote in the new Chamber, ic* presents not the triumph of Socialistic principles, but the judgment of the electors upon political corruption. For the beginnings of this development it is necessary to look back to events years before the <April-Ma.y elections. When M. Caillaux and M. Monis took Ministerial office r in March, 1911, the prosecution of the fraudulent company-promoter Rochette was fixed for trial. By exerting pressure upon executive officers of the law — who ought to have been above political influence — they procured aai adjournment, interfering with the course of justice. The officers whom they thus bent to their purpose were the Procura-tor-General, M. Fabre, who had charge of the prosecution of Rochette, and the Judge, M. Bidault de II 11I 1 Isle; and the former, though yielding, drew up, for his own protection, a memorandum embodying the facts. Later, M. Monis and M. Caillaux went out of office, and the post of "Minister of Justice" was held successively by two of their political opponents : firstly, M. Briand ,' secondly, M. Baithou. The incriminating memorandum came to the knowledge of M. Briand and afterwards to that of M. Barthou. Both recognised it as a deadly weapon to be used against the ex-Min-isters at a psychological moment, and neither said anything. Their silence was not broken till Madame Caillaux wrecked her husband's career by murdering (for fear of exposure of her private character) the journalist M. Cal* mette ; whereupon M. Barthou read the memorandum in the Chamber. M. Barthou pretended that he read it as a "debt of honour" to the murdered man, but the method of his silence and. the method of his breaking it both fail to lend credibility to his ostensible motive. When the Rochette Enquiry Committee reportod last April it condemned all these four loaders — Caillaux, Monis, Briand, and Barthou — every one of whom has been Prime Minister of France, it found M. Caillaux and M. Monis guilty of a "most deplorable abuse of influence." It condemned M. Briand for a. silence that deceived the Committee, and M. Barthou for withdrawing the memorandum from the Chancellerie and reading it in the Chamber. Though the censure is mild compared with the enormity of the offence, partisan members of the enquiry committee endeavoured to make it oven milder. That it retained any real censorial tone was mainly duo to the efforts of the chairman of the committee, M. Jaures, Leader of tho Socialist Party. Consequently, M. Jaures and his followers en* twed tho April'Mo-y elections unupotted by the nfud that had fallen so copiously

on the leaders of other parties. His selection to take charge of the enquiry had shown that, Socialist though he is, he was even then the only leader in whose impartiality and honesty all parties had confidence ; and his subsequent conduct of tho proceedings brought him as much credit as it brought disgrace to his opponents. At one stage he even had to temporarily resign the chairmanship of the committee to prevent its report being completely watered down. Nor did the energy of himself and his followers stop at a finding which was, at best, a political compromise. True to their colours, the Socialists followed it up by moving in the Chamber that the law be invoked against all the four exPrime Ministers; and the opposing parties were thus placed in a dilemma. One set of "lovers of justice" were eager to prosecute M. Monis and M. Caillaux ; their opponents would have liked to set the law in motion against M. Briand and M. Barthou ; but the Socialist resolution, to bring all the accused to book, suited neither side, and the Caillaux and the Briand hostile factious were forced to unite to defeat the common enemy. Thus the French public were able to see that only the Socialists and some thirty Radical members really stood for justice pure and simple. Three evils are proved by the Rochette case and the Calmetto murder. Firstly, finance exerts a dangerous pressure on politics. Secondly, politicians exercise an illegal' and sinister influence on the officers of the law. Thirdly, political leaders and "Ministers for Justice" treasure up evidence of qacli other's crimes in/ order to strike at the psychological moment, not in the interests of clean government, but to crush rivals, That the recent elections did nojfc wipe out the guilty parties" is due to the fact that French people always suspect such conduct by public men, and are liable to cyiiically awidone it. The Socialists 1 gain of tt> mo s i x t y seats represents, however, a partial recrudescence of honesty. By refusing supply, they will be able, according to the cablegrams, to force the Doumergue Government out of office. That this Ministry survived the ic&ignations, in such scandalous circumstances, of two prominent members like M. Caillaux and M. MOlll3, seems inexplicable to the Anglo-Saxon mind. Now, apparently, it ia to be starved out by lack of funds.