POLITICAL ASPECTS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 5 May 1914, Page 2

POLITICAL ASPECTS.

For months past M. Caillaux has been the special object of a fierce political camp aign waged by M. Calmette against the present Ministry. Every weapon known of the political armoury has been turned against the Minister for Finance. His personal, political, and business record nas been dissected bit by bit! in the search for possible flaws. So far the campaign has not been Aery successful, but for the last few days Paris has been filled with rumours that M. Calmette had in his possession a document concerning the Rochette case, so gravely compromising M. Caillaux that the editor, bitter political enemy though ho was, hesitated to use it: In a series of violent articles the

"Figaro" revived the story of the intrigue in regard to Morocco and the Congo carried on by M. Caillaux as Minister for Finanqe in 1911 behind the back of his colleagues. These intrigues led indirectly to the despatch of the German gunboat Panther to Agadir, and precipitated the grave European crisis of the summer of 1911. These attacks, which dealt with questions already of public notoriety, attracted less interest than those, which the "Figaro" thereupon proceeded to raise in regard to the issue of Ottoman treasury bonds made by the banking house of Perier last December. The "Figaro" suggested that M. Caillaux, as Minister for Finance, had diminished on his own initiative the amount of the fine imposed by the fiscal authorities upon the banking house for irregularities committed during the issue of the Bills. On this point M. Caillaux vouchsafed no answer.

THE CTLMIXATING POINT

The "Figaro" campaign reached its culminating point a week ago when the. newspaper produced in facsimile a. letter written by M. Caillaux in 1901 boasting that lie had "smashed the income, tax (the whole foundation of M. Caillaux's policy) in seeming to defend it." The letter, which was apparently written to a. lady, was signed "Thy Jo." M Calmette de\«oted the front page of the "Figaro" to piling up fierce denunciation and withering satire on the Finance Minister, "the demagogue plutocrat," "the malignant man,""as he called him. "My task is done," the article concluded. "Sweep him away! To work!" and thn followed the signature "Gaston Calmette." M. Caillaux replied" through a press agency that the letter was taken from private correspondence and that its sense had been distorted. He explained that he was referring to an inci dent in the Chamber when the Opposition wanted to replace direct- taxes by

tile immediate introduction of an income tax. a course which he resolutely op- , posed. . ! M. Catmetie on Saturday and again on Monday renewed his attacks on "Jo," as he cailcd his victim. Tlupaper showed as a cartoon a prisoner between two guards. ""He wants to telephone to Caillaux," says ' the firstguard. "Rather risky since the Rochetto case!" replies the other. j SITUATION COMPLICATED. \

The -personal side of M. Calmette's murder was soon forgotten, and it was almost exclusively regarded from its effect on the complicated political situation. The Paris correspondent of the "Morning Post" writes: "It is natural that the'murder of the editor of a famous Paris newspaper by the wife of the Ministr of Finance, and the acknowledged leader of the Radical Party, should have caused an immense sensation throughout the country, and that- this crime should weigh heavily on the course of French politics. I "have discussed the probable extent of its results with several eminent politicians of different parties, and they are at least agreed as to the categories into which these consequences may be divided. In the first place there is i the immediate effect on the position of I the Government resulting from M. Caillaux's resignation. M. Caillaux was the dominant personality in the Government, and he was in his person the mostqualified representative of the Radical solution of the income tax problem. Time presses, says M. Clcmenceau, because the session will be at an end in less than a fortnight, and this period will be occupied with financial discussions of the utmost- importance. There is, however, another and larger issue which is the direct consequence of M. Calmette's murder. The Rochettp affair has become the Pochette scandal. The publication of the report .in which the Public Prosecutor complains of entirely .illegitimate interference on the part of a Premier cannot bo disregarded. This document would, no doubt, hav»j been published sooner or later. The "Figaro" says that M. Gaston C'alinette had for several days been carrying it on his person, and that one of tho bullets which struck him tore through its pages. It is true that this document- is directly eoi:tradicted bv the evidence of M. Ridault de lMsle. President of tho Chambre des Apnels Correctionnels. actually accorded the adjournment, pi" the Rochette trial."