ZOLA AND DREYFUS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1523, 28 February 1901, Page 58

ZOLA AND DREYFUS

THE NOVELIST'S NEW LETTER. The “Aur'ore’T a new letter from -Zola addressed to M. Loubet, which fills eight of its columns. M. Zola begins by recalling, his letter to M. Fa-ure of January 13, 1891, which M.'Faure' ignored, committing a monastPous iniquity, AX. Zola claims, by which his memory is clouded. M. Zola condemns the bill as a supreme denial of justice, which history will stigmatise as “the infamous amnesty. Waldeck-Rousseau, Ministry and the President are,” he says, ‘‘committing the same fault, as their predecessors after a. silence or 18 months> in order to avoid! being a source of difficulty to tlie Government.” M. Zola- then speaks of the “terrifying sentence of the Rennes courtmarital, that insolent provocation, the iniquity of which caused the whole world to shudder.” He condemns the Government for acquiescing in that sentence, and states that the Court of Cassation should have been again summoned. He deplores the necessity which has led MM. Prison and V aldeck-Rousseau to condone crime fc-r State- reasons. .“France in running into fresh oat-as- , trophies; the truth will awake, its damouir will be heard and will unchain the tempest. Whence it will come I know not, but the storm will come.” M. Zola deplores the result of the Govern-in-ent’s policy with regard to its effect ; c-n th© Republic. “What sort of lessons are you giving the democracy when you ; teach that at certain moments truth and justice no longer exist when interests of State "are at stake? This is restoring the reason of State to the place of honour by men who condemned it in 'Monarchy and the Church.” _M Zola ' ■ regrets that several of his friends of such rank should welcome the amnesty for tUe sake of the immunity secured by M. Picquart. He pours scorn cn a measure that include© in the sa.m e batch Picquart, Esterhazy, Reinach, Du Paty de Clam, Mercier, and himself. T Ho denies the statement that the Drey-

fus affair lias done great harm to France as compared with the- admirable spectacle given by the Titanic- struggle for justice and the conflict of all livingforces for the same ideal. The affair, he claims, has saved the Republic, has unmasked enemies who were plotting its destruction, whose schemes it disclosed before they were ripe for execution . M. Zola reiterates the charges made in liis famous “J’accuse” letter. He. claims they have been proved by evidence before the Court of Cassation and at Rennes. As regards himself, he says he is tranquil, as he did his duty as honestly as he could. He will now return to his books, but history-will judge. His eyes and ears remain open, for “I have a tenacious hope that I may see truth and justice arrive from distantfields in the future.” Another part of the letter says: “I shall not cease repeating that the affair cannot cease as long as France does not know and repair the injustice. I said the fourth act was played at Rennes, and that there would have to be a fifth act. Anxiety remains in my heart. The people of France always forget that the Emperor of Germany is in possession of the truth, which he may throw in our face when the hour strikes. Perhaps ,he has already chosen, his time. This would be the horrible fifth act which I have always dreaded, of which the French Government should not for one hour accept the terrible contingency.”