ANOTHER FRENCH SCANDAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9229, 17 June 1893, Page 2 (Supplement)

ANOTHER FRENCH SCANDAL.

The Figaro has published the first of a series of articles bearing the signature of M. Cardans, on the subject of the melinite scandal, which arousod so much interest in the autum of 1891, when M. Turpin, tho inventor of the explosive, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, the trial being conducted with closed doors. The articles in the Figaro are intended to show that M. Turpin was condemned without just cause, and in order to prevent his making revelations on certain scandalous proceedings which he thro.it jued to denounce. M. Cardane .relates that he was charged by M. Lagrange do Langres, the Chief of the Departmental Cabinet of M. de Froycinet, late Minister ofWWatr t with a secret mission, according to which he was bo offer M. Turpin, who is detained at the prison of Etampes, his pardon and th? payment of an indemnity if he would consent not to reveal the names of certain persons compromised in the melinite scandal. "If Turpin promises not to speak," said M. de Freycinet's Chief of the Cabinet, "it means liberty for him ! But if he insists on speaking and tries to retrieve his reputation at our expense, he may make up his mind to serve his time in prison up to the last minute. We have taken our precaution as to that." To enable M. Curdane to see the prisoner, he was furnished with a letter by M. Lagrange dc Langres, through which, after numerous interviews with different officials, he was on December 12 last enabled to see Turpin in prison without witnesses, and to have a long conversation with him. M. Turpin refused to give any promise of silence regarding the names of persons compromised in the affair as long as M. de Freycinet remained Minister of War, or until he himself had been rehabilitated, and his Cross of the Legion of Honour restored to him. Ho repeated his accusations against various departmental officials at the Ministry of War. It would further appear from the conversation that melinite was delivered to the Governments of the i Triple Alliance, that the French Government itself offered the explosive to Russia, that a French firm, in total disregard of the inventor's right, manufactured the substance and delivered quantities of it in China, Japan, Chili, and Roumania, and that a Chilian cruiser, which loft Havre in 1891 to take part in the civil war then raging in Chili, had on board a large number of melinite shells. In spite of all this, continues M. Cardane, no more was done to bring the offenders to justice than had been done in the case of Colonel Bange, who in 1877 resigned his post as a member of the Artillery Commission on the ground that plans of the guns invented by him were communicated to Great Britain a few days after they bad been approved by the Minister of War. M. Lagrange de Langres, who is alleged to have furnished M. Cardane with a letter enabling him to see M. Turpin in prison alone, is at present absent from Paris; but M. de Freycinet states that he has telegraphed to his former subordinate at the War Office, asking him to return to the capital and give an explanation of M. Cardune's statements. M. Turpin was liberated on Tuesday rooming. Ho left Etampes Prison early, and proceeded by rail to the Orleans station in Paris. There he was interviewed by a press representative, to whom he stated that ho had determined nob to keep silence. He repeated that ho was innocont, and that to vindicate his honour it would be necessary to expose tho conduct of all connected with the tidal, and especially of the officials of the War Office