The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-09-11
The Hostility to the Prisoner Of DEVILS
Island Has Not Alb ated.
The Expected Sitting Of the Coun-
Gil to Hear the Report of the
Minister Of War on the Case
Brings About No Results, the
Minister Not Being Ready to
Form an Opinion in the Matter.
copyrighted, 1898. by Associated Press.

lCopyr1ghteQo 1898, by Associated Press. |
PARIS, Sept. 10-Expectation was
disappointed to-day. The Ministerial
Council was to have held a special sit
ting, with the object of hearing the
War Minister'S account of the Dreyfus
case and the newly discovered delin-
quencies of the staff officers. But Cen
eral Zurlinden, finding that he had not
yet the ground upon which to form q
sound opinion, asked for an adjourn
ment. He is a serious, honorable
minded, worthy colleague Of the con-
scientiouS BrissOn, and was chosen to
investigate the Dreyfus affair as War
Minister because he is not biased, and
is weighted with a sense of the respon-
sibllity involved in the matter Being
a Protestant and of bourgeois breeding,
he does not share the ultra Catholic
nnti-Jewish feeling of the caste at the
War Office. Having been a prisoner
of war in Germany in 1870, and being
an Alsatian, he is warmly patriotic,
and would sympathize with the mill
tary Judges of Dreyfus should he find
evidence of guilt.
Judging from the disappointment
when news was received that the coun-
is in a good channel The country now
being violently anti-Semitic and Drey-
fus being a Jew, the Government will
have to act with a willy creep rather
than walk forward. The late Lieuten-
ant Colonel Henry's confession brought
public opinion around to revision, but
the hostility to Dreyfus is not abated.
The people feel that mist of iniquity
is involved in the affair. and they will
attempt to penetrate it. They are be-
ginning to understand that the general
stand is no better than when it rem
dered the military disasters of 1870 in
eyitable. The resignation Of General
Boisdeffre as Chief of the General Staff
is a standing puzzle, and it arouses sus-
picions that only public trial can
quiet.
The darkest conjeetures are seeming
ly justified by the circumstances con-
nected with Colonel Henry's suicide,
which, the Jews remark, was accom-
plished no the day the Semitic con-
gress broke up. That event utterly dis
credits the intelligence department of
the War Office, and, indeed, discredits
the whole general staff.
The fall of General Boisdeffre brings
the drama home to the imperial court
of Russia, where, as brilliant aristo-
cratic military attache, he was a great
favorite. He was admitted to the in
innate festivities of the imperial fam
lily, and was favorite partner of the
Empress dowager in her dancing days.
The French Republic sent his as a spe-
cial ambassador to the late Cars flu
neral, and to be present at the Cars
coronation. Great sums of money were
allowed him to cut a dash. The reopen
ing Of the Dreyfus case may solve the
puzzle.
A semi-official note issued this even
ing says the Minister Of War has hand
ed to the Minister of Justice the pa
pers in the Dreyfus case, with his def
mite opinion thereon. The council, 1t
is added, will on Monday decide def
nitely upon the course to be pursued.