BOLOISM IN FRANCE

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 110, 12 May 1919, Page 7

BOLOISM IN FRANCE

EX-SENATOR HUMBERT ACQUITTED LENOIR SENTENCED TO DEATHCUJIITSD rRSBS ASSOCIATION.—COPYRIGHT.) (AUSTRAUAN'-NBVr ZEALAND CAHI.E ASSOCIATION.) PARIS, 9th May. Ex-Senator Humbert has been acquitted of the charge of trafficking with the enemy in connection with the purchase of the newspaper Journal in 1915. He acquired a controlling interest in that paper with money supplied by Lenoir, who was arrested on a charge of having obtained the funds from Germany. It was alleged that Humbert accepted over £200,000 from 8010 Pasha to pay out lo Lenoir. The latter has been convicted, and sentenced to death.

[Writing on 13th February, 1918, the Paris corrccpondeßt of the London Daily Telegraph stated : Boloism is being followed up link by link. Senator Charles Humbert was arrested in his country house this morning, although the fact was not releat-' ed for publication until this afternoon. Another arrest ma-dc is that of one Levy, alias Max Raymond, editor cf the weekly Les Ont Dit, who is suspected of defeatism. As for Charles Humbert, Senator of the Meuse Department, and former editor of the Journal, iti will be remembered that Bolo's counsel at the trial asked pointedly why Humbert was not in the dock beside 8010, considering he had accepted in the Journal, money which 8010 was charged with having taken from the Germans. Senator Hum■bert is accused not of intelligence with the enemy, but of trading with tho enemy. He certainly did trade with tho enemy, wittingly or Unwittingly. As tlio acousaiion points out, if innocent he was extraordinarily unlucky. He first of all accepted some £200.000 put into the Journal from Lenoir, and this money turned out to come from the Swiss, £>choeller, who, as was declared by M. Doyen the financial expert at the Bold trial, acknowledges having received those funds from Germany for German propaganda. Humbert subsequently threatened to have Lenoir couvt-martialled if ho did noi retire from the Journal, which Lenoir did. Thereupon Humbert looked round for another financial backer, and, with singular ill-luck, lighted upon. BolOj who also put some £200,000 into tho Journa-1, and this £200,000 was,- of course, also German money. The charges against M. Humbert are, first of all, based on the above facts, and, secondly, upon the suspicion that he had a considerable inkling of the origin, first of Lenoir's, and, of Bolo's capital, and in any case could easily have found out it lie had taken the trouble. In foct, he is accused of having "discovered" that Bolo's millions .were Boche only when he could no longer help doing so.]