DREYFUS TRIAL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 153, 31 May 1937, Page 8

DREYFUS TRIAL

VICTIM’S MEMOIRS. BIOGRAPHY WRITTEN BY SON. Memories of one of the most celebrated treason trials in history will be recalled with the publication of a biography of Lieutenant-Colonel Dreyfus, written by his son, Pierre, says the Morning Post. Incorporated in the volume is a portion of the hitherto unpublished memoirs, of Dreyfus dealing with his fight for vindication from the time ■of his second condemnation at Rennes in 1899 to his final acquittal in 1906. The latter are particularly interesting, both for the light they throw on Dreyfus’s character—his composure and apparent coldness in the face of friends and enemies alike sometimes alienated liis own supporters—and because they contain his own opinions of many of the principal actors in the drama. Of his “coldness,” which was adversely commented on during the Rennes court-martial, he writes: — “I have since discovered that they expected large gestures, violent outbursts, theatrical, instead of examining mercilessly, step by step, the great mass of facts, important and unimportant, that had been heaped up against me . . . That one should seek to excite pity if one is guilty is natural enough, for in certain cases the heart excuses many errors. “But in my case they were dealing with an innocent,,man . . . Yet they were surprised that this inoce'nt man did not try to play on the emotions of his judges.” General Mercier, War Minister at the time of the condemnation in 1894, Dreyfus describes as “the archcriminal,” while of Cavaignac, War Minister in the Buisson Cabinet of 1898, he writes: “A tool in the hands of the unscrupulous men who hatched the plot against justice in the officers of the Intelligence Department, Cavaignac completely lost his head in the acclamations from the anti-Semite and National mob which rang round him in 1898. “From that time onward he shut his mind against all reason and good sense, took up the battle against truth, and broke himself against her.” Finally, the last triumph, when, next door to the Court in which he had been disgraced 12 years previously, he was decorated with the Legion of Honour, Dreyfus depicts as: : j “So moving that no words of mine can describe it. Anatole France came up and said: ‘I am very happy and very moved. I cannot find words strong enough to praise the constancy you have shown in the face of so much suffering.’ ” The biography, apart from Colonel Dreyfus’s own memoirs, deals, naturally enough, mainly with the 12 years which the affair lasted.

Written with the authority of a son who has access to all his father-’s papers, it contains many copies and faseimiles of letters to Dreyfus, written by famous people of the day, together with , a selection of the correspondence between Dreyfus and his wife while he was in prison. Admirably translated by Dr Betty Morgan, the book will be of interest to all students of this period of French history. .