Arizona republican., 1899-07-14
DREYFUS NOT THE FIRST
Oihxr V CEimS of 'r Inc Honor of inc
 French Ermy"

i that DIeyIOS IS py no mS24S -,n2 uFSI
 man to suffer for the honor of the
 French army" If it were possible to
 reveal the secret chronicles of the French war office it would ba an easy
 matter to prove that this is neither the
 first nor the twentieth attempt on the
 rart Of the war department officials to
 screen the guilty at the expense of the innocent
 Near the end Of the reign of Louis KY in France all the affairs of the French government were in gret con fuston Count de Bellegsrde. who was
 the colonel of an artillery regiment. noticed that some other officers con
 nected with the arsenal were commit
 ting gross frauds NDon the govern
 ment in connivance with contractors and inspectors. Being a man of honor
 and integrity, he promptly reported ] the matter to the minister of war. The latter in turn reported it to the direc- i tor of the arsenal, General de Saint 1 Auban. The general indignantly de- i nied the colonels charges, protesting ] the innocence both of himself and the i other officers, and. not satisfied with l that. de n0u1ced the colonel as trait or. The colonel's position was thus |
 i to accused, and Investigation Of his case was ordered, the officer in charge of if being a particular chum of Gen oral Saint Auban The colonel was arrested imprisoned, put through the mockery of a trial. and sente1csd 10
 1egreda.:on and close imp-is is0nment in q fortress for twenty years. This sentence was caTried out he co-onel
 was practically buried alivehn dun
 geon where he was never allowed lC
 see any ore. nor hear the sound of a .
 human voice. while the scoundrels 1
 whom he had accused were promoted | and hC10Ted.
 The colonel's wife, however, was a l
 woman of great spirit and resource l Confident of her husbands innocence, 1 she devoted her life to his vindication- Another relative of the colonel, Baron | de Chargsy. aalso iuteres5ei h .mseli |
 n the matter, and presently brought | charges against General Saint Aubar | of having committed forgeriss and ] having suboi ned perjury n order tc | convict Colonel de Beliegarda. Vari [ ous other friends also interested them l selves in the matter, and soon were i able to present very strong case tc 1 the minister of war He, however, re-
 fused to do anything in the matter saying that the coloneIs case had been i finally adjudicated. and could not bs re0pened. So the matter dragged or until Louis EV died. and Louis XVI succeeded to the throne. Then the i queen, Marie Antoine5se. became inter estsd in the case, and through her ef- forts and influence the minister of war was removed, thorough inquiry into I the whole case was instituted, and Colonel de Bellegarde was released and T -1, after his condemnation. The points of resemblance between thise case and the Dreyfus case are obv.ous. An other, small but interesting, is that the Christian name of he wife of Colonel de Bellegarde was the same as that Of the wife of Captain Dreyfus, namely. Lucie.
 Then there is the case of Jean Fabry, who never obtained full justice On June ?, 1915, a court martial at presided ovzr by General DesbureauX, sentenced Fabry by 3aTna- jority of five votes in seven to ~five years of penal seryitude to the reSti- tut:0n of 10,354 francs .inisappropri- ated by him." and to military degre- datiOn. Fabry was connected with the accountants department of the navy. and later was transferred as office pay master to the Hist regiment of the line. whence he went to the depot gen eral for refractory conscripts a. Stras- burg. on November l. 1S13 On as- suming his new office 1t took him but a short time to discover that the ac- counts were in condition of absolute l .. confusion, chiefly owing, it is said, 10 , the neglect of his predece essor, Sub Lieutenant Desprat. who was charged with having lent his signature to the l Justification of the pay sheets of conscrips These con- scr-ps were dummies existing only in he ina ginatio1 of the captain of the company, who shared with the mem- 1ers of the admin .strative council the mounts represented by their kep ,lothing and pay.
 When Fabry discovered he reckless 'onditicn n which the accounts had r 'een kept he lost no time in reporting ha matter tO the colonel of the regi- nent, then tO the sUb-inspectOr gen ral and finally to the inspector gen z ral. His report in every case was re- . eived with a shTUg of the shoulders, T accompanied by the recommendation | not to be too zealous.' or he might get
 imself in serious difficulties Fabry. Cwever, was not to be suppressed, but nnounced his intention of carrying g he matter to the minister of war So con as he made this announcement is opponents planned his destruction IT settlement of the October accounts sl -as demanded by the colonel not T the fact tha1 they had h zen settled on the first day F'abry n 1ned the dep0t Knowing that he R ad his account books and documents Il ! support not only of his honesty but Jr lso of the information he intended | e )dging wtth the minister Of war h. abry rs4Assd to ba iatimidated His tE 1ys-5z-ies. however, ir1media-ely ht