The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-05-25 00:00:00

THE BANISHED COMMUNISTS.

M. J. B. Bocquet, "French Master at London Uni-
verity College School ;late Mayor of the Fifth Arron-
dispernent, Patio; late Commandant of the 118th
Battalim of the National Guard, Paris," has sent the
following letter to The Tirare for publication:—
Would you allow one of the so called Communists to offer
you stew observations on the subject which has so much
en mged public :Mention of bite? I have been living in
England for the lost twenty years, being an exile itf 18)1;
fir ten years I have lren a French muter at London
University College School After the reverees of the French
armies in Angust, laid, I, a civilian of fifty-two years of age,
left England to go and take my part in the defence of Carla.
On the sth of September I was appointed mayor of the firth
artondissement (Pantheon). afterwards elected " com-
mandant 'of the 118th Battalion of the National Guard. In
both capacities I did my duty.
Afterwards, being an old Republican. I aided, as a matter
of course, with Republican Paris against Royalist Vermilion.
I was arrested in use, 1871, and went through the five calk,
of the '' Orangerie" at Versailles, the lost of which might Te•
Mind any one of Dante's Inferno or of the Calcutta block.
hole In August I was taken in a cattle waggon to Lorieid,
where we were huddled together, about 900 of us, sin the pont,.
Lt Vengeance. The Oginte of the hulku killed many. As for
nit sell Incas in November taken, in a (Wog state, to the
nitritime hotaltal of Port Louis. In December I was, by
order, torn from my bed of sickness, hurried off to Versailles,
there to be tried at core I was, however, not called before
a court martial before the end of March.
What sufferings I, with the rest of my fellow-prisoners,
had to endure during these many long numths are beyond de-
scription. Bad 811,1, Insufficient food, filth, dampness, sleep-
less nights on bare, c Ad, wet ground (Sr flue, vermin, who
which our bodies and clothes were swarming, leaving us no
rest either aria or day, want of pare sir, light, and exercise
frequent insults, threats (sometimes acted upon) of being
thrashed or shot at, undermined the health and constitution
of all and the spirit of most. Add to that the excruciating
pangs of many heads of families at the thought of wife and
little ones starving at home.
Our atrocious "houses of bondage" were much like the
leproseriea of the Middle Ages ; we all looked "frights,"

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and, no doubt, my poor countrymen when they landed at
Dover looked, as stated, "all unpromising lot.'' But a
thorough wash, food, and a change of clothes would restore
them to their former decent and respectable appearance, as,
I hope, they did me.
At last, on the 23rd of March, after ten months' imprison-
ment, I was brought before a cost-martial and sentenced
to five years banishment by military men who, I dare any,
had done their duty towards France more thoroughly and
more disinteresteily than myself during the late war.
The next day I applied to the Horne Secretary, as directed,
to be sent ;may at once. But, contrary to the terms of my
sentence of banishment, contrary to law, I was kept illegally
in gaol by the most legal Government of Versailles for five
more weeks. I was jolted through four more prisons, and
at last embarked at Calais under toe eyes of a policeman in
plain clothes, to whom I had to pay Ea as. for that service.
Had it not been for the strenuous exertions of my many in-
fluential English &ie.& I should have been detained a still
longer time.
•

The case of the Frenchmen lassie] at Dover reads very
much like mine. They have been, one and all, cot:dein:lcl
to five or ten yeah,' banishment for having fought against
Ter...inks ; they have In en, one Lat I all, detailed illegally,
scnie as much as three mouths, after sentence had been
passed on thim. They woe without previous notice hurried
from Paris, or Versailles (not Cherbourg'' to Calais, having
had no chance to call upon their friends for any little help
they surely would have received. No wonder they have
been thrown destitute on the shores of England, and had to
tramp it to London through mud sad rain.
Now, Sir, another word, and I have done. In February I
saw and read on the wat s of the " I.looot des Chant:tem' and
every one of my 1,200 fellow prisoners huddled up in the
three rooms of that building saw and read like myself, the
following bill stuck up everywhere—
•

" L'Angleterre In Ile'gigue, la Suisse, l'Espagne, refusent
de recovoir lee blinnis.
" Cu. MAlsalu ?.?, Governor of the D6pOt
des Chantiers."
The commotion thus produced among us, especially among
men who like myself knew England, may be easily imagined. ,
On the 24th of March I was told to draw up my petition,
stating to what foreign country I intended to go. Sure
enough, I declared I wished to go to England, and handed
nip request to the Governor of the place. " What do you
mean. Sir?' cried he : have you not read the bill? Don't
you know England refuses the banished ?" '• I have read the
bill, Sir, but, with all due rsspect to governmental hills,! do
not believe that England refuses to receive the banished."
"I cannot forward your petition; you must draw up
another." Then I slid draw up another. I had to write five
successive ones, always requesting to be sent to England.
As for the 33 working men just arrived, they wrote their
demand as directed. Still, days after days passed on, and
they remained in gaol. All of a sudden they were told to
draw up another petition and request to be sent to England.
Rather bewildered, they, of course, wrote the required de-
mand, and we re unexpectedly Bent to Calais, and there put
on board a strainer. . .

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They are now at 31, Francis-street, Gower-street. They
all have a trade they are young, eager for work. They
come from Paris or Versailles 'not Cherbourg' ; two only of
them belong to Belleville or Montmartre, and of these two
one is an artist (cameo sculptor, the other a superior skilled
engineer. All is not scum, as you see, even in Belleville and
Montmartre.