FRENCH OFFICER ON TRIAL

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19942, 29 October 1934, Page 9

FRENCH OFFICER ON TRIAL

CHARGES OF SALE OF MILITARY SECRETS RISING INDIGNATION IN ARMY United Press Association—Bv Electric TelegTa ph —Copyright PARIS. October 26. For the first time since the Dreyfus case, troops are guarding the Law Courts at Belfort, owing to the fears of disturbances at the trial of Captain Froge, a French officer with a distinguished record, who is accused of betraying secret army plans to a foreign Power. Captain Froge’s lawyer is demanding that the British Secret Service should disclose the documents revealing that the principal witness against Captain Froge was a spy in the service of various Governments, and for this reason was unreliable. Feeling in the army is very high, as Captain Froge, hitherto, has been blameless, and it is felt that this may be another Dreyfus case. “The secret hearing is a pretext to cover the machinations of the French Intelligence Service," declared Captain Froge’s counsel. “There are obvious forgers on the French General Staff which fears an open debate, because the dossier is riddled with improper proceedings, and does not want to let daylight on it.” Tainted Accusers Captain Froge’s accusers are Geissmann, a deserter from the Austrian army, who turned police informer, and Krauss, a Polish ex-officer, who admits he has been a spy in the service of Germany. Froge who has a brilliant war record, throughout protested his innocence. He accuses Geissman of forgery. Krauss states he paid Froge £2OOO for a plan of the air defences of Belfort and other frontier defences. The Court is heating the case in camera.

Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who is still alive, is the son of a rich Jewish manufacturer in Paris. He entered the army, became an artillery captain and was attached to the General Staff. In 1894 he was arrested, accused of delivering documents to the German Government. He was tried by court martial sitting in secret, found guilty .and condemned. He was degraded and sent to Cayenne, lie du Diable. His condemnation roused throughout the whole of France a wave a anti-Semit-ism. and most people were prepared to believe anything evil of the Jews. But Dreyfus’s conviction only strengthened in the minds of his relatives their belief that he was innocent and that the military party in France was guilty of conspiracy. Then started the long fight to prove his innocence, during which Zola wrote his famous open letter to the President accusing the military staff of not allowing justice to he done. For this he was tried for libel, convicted and fled the country. In 1898 Clemenceau took up the case and one of the documents was found to be a forgery. Henry, chief of the Intelligence Department, was arrested, but he committed suicide after confessing that he had fabricated the document. The struggle was now against the army, and for a short while the republic itself was in danger. Cabinet, however, transferred the case to the Court of Cassation, and another court martial was held at Rennes where Dreyfus was again convicted. But this was merely the last struggle of the military party, since extenuating circumstances were admitted and the sentence reduced. This was followed immediately by a free pardon. The proceedings against Dreyfus were finally quashed in 1906, and he was restored to the army with the rank of major.