STORM AROUSED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22975, 1 March 1938, Page 11

STORM AROUSED

CAGOULARDS' PLOT FRENCH PRESS CONTROVERSY CHARGES AGAINST POLICE PARIS, Feb. 20 A storm has broken out in the Paris press regarding the part alleged to have been played by former Police-Inspector Bonny in the investigation of the plot of the Cagoulards (Hooded Men). The Cagoulards were a semiFascist body which, it is alleged, intended to overthrow the Government by force of arms. L'Echo de Paris, a Right "Wing newspaper, announces that it will furnish unquestionable proof that the Cagoulard affair was "worked up" by the Surete (French detective service) in complicity with Bonny, who was a leading figure in the Staviskv fraud case in 1901 and was later dismissed from the Surete. L'Oeuvre takes the opposite view. It demands justice for the former inspector, stating that he gave the first information about the Hooded Men':? plot. The controversy began when Eugene de L'Oncle, alleged to bo a leader of the conspirators, accused one of his denunciators of being in league with Bonny. Le Jour to-dav publishes the text of a petition said to have been remitted to the present Minister of the Interior, M. Sarraut. In this Bonnv is mentioned as having played a leading part in revealing the Cagoulards' plans. Le Jour states that it publishes the document to show that the affair was inspired by the police. According to the petition, M. Dormoy, then Minister for the Interior, promised to reinstate Bonny in the Surete. M. Jean Piot, editor of f'Oeuvre, states that he and several members of his staff accompanied Bonny's legal adviser, Maitre Lamour, to see M. Dormoy, who admitted Bonny's services and promised to reinstate him. M. Piot adds that he was told that the documents published in Le Jour were drawn up by Maitre Lamour for M. Sarraut at M. Dormov's request.