The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-25
CoMTE CoNFESSES THE CRIME
EsTERHAZY ADMITS THAT HE
FORGED THE BORDEREAU.


He Committed the Forgery at the
Request of Col. Sandherr, and De-
cIares There Is No other Way to
Convict Spies-They Were Conf
dent That Drcyfus Was Guilty, But
Documentary Evidence Was Re-
quired to Convict Him-Being Or
dered by Col. sendherr He Wrote
the BOrdereau without the Slight
est COmpunctiOn.
London, Sept. 25.-The Observer this
morning continues its Esterhazy story be-
gun last Sunday in a long article the
most salient feature of which is Comte
Esterhazy's disclosure, made, it is as
serted, in the presence of more persons
than one, that he was the author of the
famous Dreyfus bordereau which he wrote,
'at the request of Col Sandherr, now
dead"
1T was intended" he said, Ito con-
stitute material proof of Dreyfus' guilt.
II was known through a French spy in the
service at Berlin that certain documents
had reached the German general etaff
which Dreyfus alone could have obtained.
1t was a list of these documents which
constituted the bordereau. Dreyfus had
been tested in several ways. For instance,
a plan for the concentration of troops on
the southeastern frontier had been die
tated to him which was quite fantastic.
"A short time afterwards our spies in
Italy informed us that the Italian staff
was making notifications in the fortifca-
tions around Nice, which corresponded to
the changes announced in the imaginary
scheme dictated to Dreyfus.
Then Dreyfus managed to spend long
holidays in Alsace without being appar-
entity found out by the German authori-
ties--a very suspicious sign, for 1t was
almost impossible for a French officer to
remain for any length of time in the con-
quered provinces without being found out.
In fact there was considerable moral
proof against Dreyfus before the trial took
place, but no material proof
"Col. Sandherr, who was an Alsacian,
like Dreyfus, but intensely anti-semetic,
determined to forge this proof He was
convinced of the accused mans guilt, but
it was necessary for the purposes of the
court martial that documents should ex-
ist
Il was attached to the intelligence de-
partment, my duty being to watch the
movements of the military attaches ac-
credited by the powers of the triple all-
ance
When Col. Sandherr told me to write
out the bordereau 1 did so without the
=lt tcrl1f
men who, soldiers by profession, cling to
old medieval traditions of military disci-
pline. When I received an order l obeyed
it implicitly and without question 1 wrote
the bordereau because Col. Sandherr told
me to do 50. I knew l was committing a
forgery, but l also knew that all intelli-
gence departments in all countries were
run on precisely the same lines, and that
1t was impossible to achieve the results in
any other way.
In the Won Tausch case, for instance,
which made so great a sensation in Ger
many, Maj Won Tausch confessed to hav-
ing committed forgery adding that that
crime was nothing to the infamies the
Berlin staff had forced him to commit in
connection with other matters. Therefore,
the court attempted to silence him. He
ultimately received the minimum punish
ment prescribed, and has since been re-
leased long before his time.
1t is nearly always necessary to man.
ufacture material evidence against spies,
because otherwise they would never be
punished The bordereau having been
written, it became necessary to give it the
Indispensable air of an authentic docu-
ment, as you know il was supposed to
have been stolen from the German embas-
sy. Col. Schwarzkoppen formerly Ger
man military attache ia Paris denied ever
having seen it. What he said was perfect
~ true. The bordereau was handed by an
agent of our intelligence department TO
porter of the German embassy who was
spy in our service. The porter gave il
10 another agent, named Genest, and by
him it was brought to the intelligence de
partment and there docketed and number
ed as document obtained from the Ger
man embassy in the usual course 1t thus
received official baptism
1T was exclusively upon the evidence
OF the bordereau that Dreyfus was con-
demned. The document privately shown
10 the officers of the court martial was
fetched from the war office during the
NUS odese with the object of convincing
the judges, should they show signs of
WaVerlng. 1t was the letter containing
the phrase DE canaille de D. Now
thls letter, which is genuine and was
really written by Col. Schwarzkoppen did
not refer to Dreyfus at all The general
staH was absoluty aware of the fact that
D. was a certain Dollfus, a building
contractor, who, years before, had sup
pied the German attache with plans of
me Ioruhcations near Nice"
Inc eX-major added that the case
AGAINST him was quashed i'm defiance Of
az law of justice. lie said the yelled lady
who appeared In the case was no other
thah the wife of Col. Du Patty du Clam.