“DREYFUSITIS.”

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 6, 23 August 1911, Page 6

“DREYFUSITIS.”

The bright and observant Paris correspondent of the “Evening Standard” tolls of an incident that throws strong light on an important phase of French character. He was sitting in a cafe with two Frenchmen, discussing the Coronation, and the conversation turned on the wonder! nl order kept by London police. “There is nothing remarkable in that,” said one of the Frenchman, “Englishmen don’t .argue with those whom they have set in authority over them, and Frenchmen always do.” This was assented to by the other Frenchman. A- few moments later a copy of the “Pitrie” was brought along, and in the first volume was seen an article by Rochefort on the Dreyfus case, called “The Proof of the Crime.” “Of course,” said one of the Frenchmen, “there are thousands of Frenchmen who must and will argue about the Dreyfus case.” It is years since tire controversy readied its zenith, and years • since Dreyfus obtained justice, and for the rest of the world the case is as dead as Queen Anne. But in France it lives in the form of a seriius malady—“Dreyfusitis.” This malady has even made it possible for other Governments to trade on "the Frenchman’s habit of not backing up his Government, and has been responsible for more loss of prestige than tho cr.se itself. The style of Rochefort’s article may bo ganged from its beginning. “All of them, the Prime Minister, the President of tho Appeal Court, the Minister of War, an ex-Minister like Trarieux, a deputy like Joseph Reinach, worked with all their force to deliver France hand and

foot to the foreigner. All the highest dignitaries of the Republic struggled in the rush to heap another stone upon this monument of infamy.” The effect of this kind of- thing in fostering a spirit of dark suspicion and hysterical argument, is deplorable. All over Franco are to be found men who are ready to declare, and firmly behove, that everybody with power in France can be bought and sold. When the Agadir question is settled, there will be men to declare that somebody has bribed the French Government, including the President. That M. Fallieres is one of the richest men in France, and that he a type of the best qualities of the bourgeoisie, will make no difference.