"MME. LA PRESIDENTS"

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 18, 20 July 1935, Page 9

"MME. LA PRESIDENTS"

REMARKABLE CAREER

ADVICE TO INVESTORS

Madam Hanau, Sometimes known as "Madame la Presidente," was, after her incarceration in the St. Lazare Prison- at Paris, dubbed "the most remarkable woman in contemporary France." This description has been applied to her by a well-known English journalist who recently interviewed her. Twenty-five years ago Madame Hanau, when twenty years of age, was peddling baby linen at Montmartre, Her ascent began quickly after she had met and married Lazare Bloch, who displayed enterprise almost equal to her own, They tried many things, and in 1912 were at last on the road to success with a" perfume shop whose success terminated only with an accident to the proprietress. Then came the war. The couple decided to make the most of their opportunities and marketed a "soldier's comforter," hich proved a great commercial success. It was a mixture of rum and coffee in small metal tubes. But before long they were prosecuted for the heinous offence of selling bad drink to the poilus and their worst times were upon them. In 1923 Madame Bloch had to return to her soap shop to work, and there she met a customer who changed everything. UNDER THE SPELL. This was Madame Joseph, rich, charming, and mysterious, who fell under the.Hanau spell and who provided .the- money whereby Madame Hanau was able to realise a life-long dream of launching a newspaper behind which should stand a bank. Lazare Bloch was editor, but he was entirely under the influence >of his wife. He continued to be devoted to his wife, and while she was in prison he deputised for her. While her husband edited the journalistic side of the paper,; Madame Hanau-Bloch turned half of the publication into a bulletin; ever more pertinent and direct, of international finance and the stock exchange, and ..this brought her to the second part of her plan, co-operation with a bank. Be'tore long Madame'Hanau was playing with, millions of francs entrusted to tier by a believing public. The true Briancial purpose of the newspaper was concealed by the barrage of eminent names which was provided, for the contributors were the first men in France. Madame met all her contributors socially and a composite photograph, with autographs, of all the great j ones who had written for the journal j was put up in the office. This brought more business from the public and gave her more money with which to play. The paper was a great success, and she opened 400 bureaux in different parts of France. In her office she swayed millions of francs by advice to the investor. She employed a head office staff of 250 people In her newspaper, which was also a .bank. But in the bad times of 1926 when the flight: from the franc began the storm broke. At the cud of 1928 there was suspicion j of her but no proof, and Ministers j showed a curious reluctance to proceed against herARREST. "You tell me that no one will carry plaint against her," said M. Poincaro, the Premier. "Then I "will." Madame Hanau and most of her aides were arrested. The sum of 300,000,000 francs was said to have been lost by her, in spite of the great dividends she had paid to her depositors, dividends which had started the' suspicion against her. Her magic with the public remained, however; a meeting of 5000 of hey most involved clients voted their full confidence in her. She maintained that her affairs were solvent and that she had paid everyone 100 per cent of what they had handed to her. But a counter-investiga-tion of her affairs was refused and she went to prison. There she kept her contact with the outside world and insisted, that she was being victimised. In 1931 she was again arrested and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, actually reduced to eight months because of the time she spent in prison awaiting trial. In 1932 she was arrested again and charged with the theft of confidential Government j documents and with attempting to I create a panic in the Parisian market |by statements in her newspaper, but later she was released.