THE DREYFUS DRAMA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8417, 17 January 1899, Page 3

THE DREYFUS DRAMA.

Electric Telegraph-Copyrißht— United Prers Association. Paris, Jan. IG. Esterhazy will not be arrested if lie will give evidence. It ia believed that the Court of Cassation will clear Dreyfus, and leave it to the Military Court to discover the real traitor. (Received Jan. 17, 9.30 a.m.) Count Minister, the German Ambassador at Paris, has gone to Berlin. It is rumored that bis visit has a connection with the Dreyfus case. General Mercier, in the course of an interview, stated that the divulging of the contents of the Dreyfus dossier would be certain to cause a coolness with Germany and Italy. General Schwarlzkopper, the German secret service officer who obtained the information as to French defences from a French traitor, has been decorated by the Kaiser. Under the heading of " Worse than a Crime," the Daily Mail writes ;— " Because Colonel Picquart hns dared to doubt the guilt of Dreyfus and ventured to suggest that Esterhazy was the true criminal, lie has been the victim of a persecution rarely paralleled in a civilised country. He was sent to Tunis, placed 'in the forefront of ' the battle,' that his accusing voice might be silenced by death j and then, when he did not die, was charged with forging the ' petit bleu,' or letter card, which had been addressed by the German Military Attache in Paris to Esterhazv, the traitor, and which was a convincing proof of the latter's guilt. This charge will, seemingly, permit Franco to be scandalised by another of the mock trials which have made French military justice so odious in the the sight of the world. The condemnation of Picquart will be the crown and seal of the Dreyfus and Esterhazy courts-martial, with their insolent conviction of the innocent and acquittal of the guilty." "It is an attempt," writes Mr Conybeare, in the December number of the National Eeview, "to strike down the one honest man whom the higher ranks of the War Office contained."