The record-union., 1898-01-22
FRENCH MILITARY SCANDAL.
NOVELIST BJORNSON WRITES
A LETTER TO zOLA.
Ccngratu1ates Him Upon the Stand
He Has Taken Relative to the
Case of Captain Dreyfus.

| NEW YORK, Jan. 21.-A special to
the World" from Paris says:
| Since the French Government refused
| to permit Zola to go to Devils Island
to describe Dreyfus' situation precisely
as it is, Bjornstjorne Bjornson. the ia
nous Norwegian novelist, poet and dra-
| matist, has written from Rome to Zola
as follows:
! very HonOred Master: How I envy
/ you. How l wish l We're in your place,
in order to be able to render to the
| country and humanity service like
| that rendered by you.
! also have proved by experience that
1t is much more perilous to want to
! eradicate hatred than love from the
minds of men. A host of things which
! have fer a long time been taking root
in the noblest as well as IN the basest
instincts of the French people have
brought on a situation so tragic that a
/ thousand years of progress and civil
/ iZation are swept away. All others
tremble before the cries and fury OF
/ barbarians but they have not made
! you recoil. You alone. with Tyre and
sword, marched against millions. l.
/ there nobler spectacle to be seen in
! the world? That was just what France
/ needed
| Il can assure you that all the people
of Europe are gazing at France at this
moment in astonishment and pain. Two
! facts sufficiently explain. The first is
the Indictment against Dreyfus. IT is
! unworthy of men charged with i'm
mense responsibility. That Indictment
charges Dreyfus with showing trea-
] sonable favor to Germany. In the evil
dence to show guilty it was alleged that
/ he could go TO Alsace more easily than
other French officers. That was Off
cially denied by the Alsace-Lorraine
Government Twice in the same year
I Dreyfus was prohibited from entering
| Alsace; the third time he started he was
| permitted to spend a week there. be-
cause his father was i'll. Has any one
| ever seen q man acting as n spy for
any country refused access to that
country?
| The imperial Government of Ger
many, moreover. has declared officially
| that Dreyfus never had relations with
these agents. The allegation of the in
/ dictment, therefore, is absolutely false
The second fact is that the official
communications made to the press af-
| firm that the Indictment contains only
part of the proofs of Dreyfus' guilt
| while the rest are kept secret. having
/ been made only to the Judges during
| the trial In other words. Dreyfus was
not condemned legally He was de-
| prived of rank. disgraced and trans
ported beyond the seas without a legal
| trial upon the unsupported opinion OF
/ a few comrades.
| "A Government which in the face OF
these confessed facts refuses to review
the Dreyfus court martial assuredIy Is
more devoid Of conscience than any
/ hitherto known among civilized people
That is the Judgment of all Europe. be
assured. Furthermore, Europe admires
what you have done. / always have
held the opinion that the work of a
romance writer or poet bears the same
relation to himself personally as notes
| to the bank which issues them. and
which should have on hand securities
corresponding to the issue
I'VE see now that if Your works have
circulated throughout the world to in
crease the courage and enrich the heart
of humanity ii is because you. your
self, are a man OF courage and heart
Yours,
= BJORNSTJORNE BJoRNSoN."