THE DREYFUS SCANDAL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9394, 22 March 1898, Page 2

THE DREYFUS SCANDAL.

IO THE EDITOIt. Sib, — Kindly allow me space in your valuable paper to reply to the ; comment-, aries following my letter" in your number of the 17th instant. Ton" are inclined to think, sir, that I troubled you with my first lotter in order to defend the^polioy of the present French Governments Allow me to say that I have done nothingof the kind, for had I done this.Jl would' have been obliged to say that Captain Dreyfus is guilty. If you w,ill kindly read" my first letter ovemgahi, yonVill find that I did not pose as a judge of Dreyfus by any means; I purposely refrainedfrom express- - ing any opinion re his conviction for this reason — that on the one'harid, ' the " Con- " seil de Gnerre," which judged Dreyfas, was composed of seven men all holding highest positions in the French Army (men who are known as models of honor and respectability) , they judged' Dreyfus and condemned him as guilty, and what- , ever may be the opinion -of that t portion of the Press in England and Germany , who condemned, the proceedings,-' the "Conseil de Guerro" is the only and proper tribunal judging cases ', against - military officers. As to $ha legality of the, judgment, General -Billot, the respected head ef the French Army, swoTe'publicly in the " Chamber, des Deputes" that' on his soul and conscience he had to declare that Dreyfas had had a -proper andj legal trial ;' on the othe» hand, Dreyfus hyhself swears of his innocence and we find plenty of his friends believing in^it and openly defending him. Consequently as lqng as Dreyfus has not confessed tohis '. guilt, it maybe that an error has- been, made by his judges. If this be so, it ia not the first miscarriage of justice, either in France or Great Britain,; bnt for all tha*k admitting for a mtfmeut that a miscarriage ' of'justice has taken place, itf;is>rio; ( reS&n to stigmatise a' whole 'nation 'as* ffbeing guilty of hatching a foul plot, etc." VTbis is what every Frenchman must exception to. Mistakes are at time." -made by Governments, or those in authority, anl for whioh it would be odious to charge the nation as a whole. . We need go no further than to our own Great Britain. You will excuse me, air, if I mention the dastardly crimes ooniinitted by the 'English authorities in onarge" at 'the.time, against thousands of so-called " criminals " sent from Great Britan.to Port Arthur in Tasmania, and -Norfolk" Islands. *-£et us not forget what tortures, such as pepper grinding, harnessing to; the Governor's carriage," eta., 'were even inflicted on scores of human beings, who, perhaps, had committed such" grave 'crimes ' as stealing a loaf of bread because they' or their children in Ireland or England were hungry ! I certainly will not dwell on these atrocities, which far outweighed any treatment meted out to Dreyfus or * any other French convict of the present century. But. Sir, although the facts referred to oannot be denied, dia "" the " British nation rise in revolt at such inhuman condnct?" as you would have it. Still, for all that happened at that time, neither myself nor any other Frenchman would be prepared to insult the Britishers as a nation, and say " that they have lost their honor !" Of course, every man oan form his own judgment of a nation j-e the authority in power at the time when such orimes are being perpetrated. • We may, execrate them, as far as they are\" concerned ; but that is no reason that we should insult a whole nation for the crimes committed or the mistakes made by a few.— l am; eto'., * ' L. J. Duhmhj. , [We have no desire to insult the French" nation, and were our Government guilty of what we considered a great wrong we would not hesitate to speak < our mind on the subject. When we remember- that many of, the highest officers of the French State and prominent 'members of the Chamber of Deputies have been found guilty of frauds in connection 'with ■ the Pauama Oaail, and others holding thd highest positions in France are alleged to be implicated in tho scandal, and in view of the recent Dreyfus casej we hesitate'to accept our correspondent's assertion that . the." Conseil de' Guerre" is composed'of men who are known' as models ofihondr and respectability. We also bear in" : niina that General Billot has < himself: been' - charged with frffiudincGnhectidnwStti'tlfe Dreyfus case. With respect tb'thelaatioS being guilty of hatching a, .foul, plot, <Snr correspondent puts a strained construction on oar reference, although he should bear in mind that the verdiot of th« judges in the Drgyfua qase was 'P.°p.u'a.r wjth. Hi§ people, who were almost frantic -in th,ein' exeorations against Dreyfus and Zola. His remarks re the treatments British convicts sixty or seventy- years ago are • scarcely apropoi, though for the matter of that we may inform our correspondent that the British people did effectually raise their voice against theill-treament of prisoners, and we venture to say the last has long since been heard -of suoh treatment so far as Great Britain is concerned. —Ed. W.H.] f