The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-08-18

| find matters OF gravity therein and IouHd,
| In short nothing but document which
might apply just as much 20 Esterhazy
| as to Dreyfus, an unimportant document
mentioning DAvignon, and document
| which it seemed absurd toa apply to Drey-
fus, namely, the Cette Canaille de D.
| document.
| Lastly, I recognized a report appended
| in the handwriting Of Guenee, which APP
| peared to be at least as worthless as the
second document
1T was then evening. had stayed
| late alone at the office, in order to ex-
anime the documents thoroughly. I
thought it over during the night and the
next day / explained the whole situation
to General de Boisdeffre. took to nis
| office the secret dosser, the fac-simile Of
the bordereau, the petit bleu and the prin-
| cipal papers cS,nnected with my investi-
CATION Of Esterhazy.
| 4 wonder, now, if I had one or two
| interviews. But 7 still see General de
Boisdeffre, as he examined the secret dos
! sier with me, stop before he reached the
end and tell me to go into the country,
/ give an account of the affair to General
Gonse and ask his advice.
/ Before starting to see General Gonse
copied a more, four pages in length,
WHICH l made September l, containing my
resume of the Esterhazy affair.
when / informed General Gonse Of all
! which had occurred he remarked SO a
/ mistake has been made
| AFTER my interview with General Gonse
did not work any longer on my own in
itiative i said nothing more until the re-
turn of General Gonse, September 15 At
that time Estsrhazy was at the great
manoeuvres.
! Next the witness dwelt on the rumors
! in September. 1896 Of the project Of re-
placing DreyTus by man Of straw and
! the discovery of the forged Weyler letter,
supposed to be connected Nith the same
project. AT about the same time the
campaign for ana against Dreyfus was
started by the newspapers.
At this stage of his deposition, Colonel
Picquart, who had been speaking for TWO
and a half hours, was yisibiy distressed
He had occasional attacks Of coughing,
but managed to continue. Colonel Jouaust
not showing any inclination to suspend
the session Of the court in order to give
him needed rest.
The witness then turned to the news
paper attacks on Dreyfus, saying that the
information regarding the pofusreAu eoh-
tanned in them convinced him that they
had been inspired by some one closely
connected with the Dreyfus affair They
copld MOI. he added, be attributed to the
Trevfus family. while they contained ex
nrassions fanilisrr to Patty de Clam. whom
If would be interesting to hear on the sub
ject.
witness next said he asked permission
10 inauire into the sources of the articles
but was forbidden to interfere in any way
whatever.
Describing his interview with Gensral
Gonse. September Is, Picquart said
when / asked General Gonse for per-
mission to continue the investigation, in
sisting on the danger Of allowing the
Dreyflis family to proceed with their in
vestigation alone, the General replied
that II was impossible in his opinion, and
in the opinion of General de Boisdeffre
ana the Minister of War, to reopen the
affair. When / pressed the point. in or
der TO make General Gonse understand
that nothing could prevent its re-opening
If it could be believed Dreyfus was inno-
cent, General Gonse replied
eff you say nothing, nobody will
know
tell me is abominable. 1 do not know
what shall do. But, | wont carry arr TINS
Il at once left the room, added the
witness THAT is what occurred know
my account is disputed but positively
swear it, said Picquart, as he emphati-
cally smote the bar in front of the wit
ness box and looked in the direction OF
the Generals.
The Colonel next described his inten-
"A f0 "
General Gonse and de Boisdeffre had for
hidden him to carry out. lie attached
particular Importance TO TINS point, as II
contained a clue to subsequent occur
ences Later, witness said, that While
Patty de Clam evidently acted wrongly IN
discussing himself with false beard and
blue spectacles, perhaps he was author
AFTER few minutes suspension of the
session. Colonel Picquart resumed his
deposition showing how, through an ar
ticie in the .sEelair'' of September 10, he
was satisfied Esterhazy had been warned
of the suspicious against him.
In order to make the proofs complete,
witness continued his Investigations with
the utmost discretion. In his opinion, the
oniy event Of Importance in the Dreyfus
dereau was the Henry forgery, perpe-
frafed October 81, 1896. He added that it
must have been handed Immediately to
Shortly before Henry perpetrated the
forgery. an agent named Guenee, Henry's
right hand man. prepared report de-
claring NJ Castelin Republican Revision
ist Deputy for Laon Division of Aisne),
was about to play the hand of the Drey-
fus family by unmasking, in the Chamber
of Deputies, the prisoners accomplice,
thus having the affair reopened
Colonel Piequart incidentally complain
ed bitterly while he was still Chief of
the Intelligence Department, that Henrys
tool Guenee should be allowed to make
reports against the witness, who had then
established a connection between the re-
Dorts of that Guenee and the false deposit
t5on Of Henry. who had testified that he
had seen witness seated in Maitre Lee
bIois,s office with the document contain
ing the words '1Cette Canaille de D"
before them.
Each new scheme, said the former Chief
of the Intelligence Department, was a
Complementary development OF the one
The next feature OF Picauart's deposit
tion was his recital OF the intrigues
against him and the pressure exercised by
Henry with the view of fixing on the
wffness the blame for communicating in
formation to the newspapers
Then. turning to the distant mission up-
on which he was dispatched. Picquart de-
scrjhed the irritation he felt when he saw
he was being removed because he was no
longer wanted as head of the Intelligence
Danartnent He explaind that If this
disprace had been frankly ayowed it
wo1lld have been much less painful to
rim. The Colonel also said that during
his absence his correspondence was tam
pered with.
rtcn,l,srf said ought to have been en-
]. - Assz - -, q f.f,fttrli issary Of Police the