The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-08-18
GEN DE GALLIFET

without a government. M. Loubet
Keeping we'll within constitutional linn
its, did all he could to unearth a man
strong enough to found a stable adj
minstration out of the weller of groups
and confusion of opinions into which
the country was thrown. M. Poncare,
a rising young Republican whose
chance will come later on, was APP
preached, but he failed to form a cab
met The president turned to NJ. wal
deck Rousseau, a Moderate of proved
loyalty and ability, and, with the help
of M. Bourgeois, hastily summoned
from the Hague for that purpose, the
portfolios were distributed under his
| leadership.
The cabinet with which M. Waldeck-
| Rousseau faced the chamber on June
rs, there to be greeted with a whirlWind
of violent personalities, was in its way
q political curiosity. Nothing like it
would be possible outside of France or
Italy, and even in France, which has
seen forty ministries rise and fall with
in the last 90 years. it was felt to be
seau had gathered around him men of
| the most varied and conflicting opin-
ions, who had spent most of their lives
fighting one another, who had hardly a
single point in common, and among
whom in ordinary times agreement
would have been impossible There
were Royalists and Republicans, Mod
crates and Radicals, Progressives and
| Socialists, the extremes of every group
and every creed. What brought them
into the same cabinet and made it pos
sible for them to act together was the
honorable resolve to subordinate party
issues to the single necessity Of saw
ing the republic. In this they were sue
| cesssful. After tempestuos debate
| they carried the chamber by 26 votes
and held office till July 4, when the ses-
sion was prorogued.
In this strange gathering of oppostes
quite the most interesting figure was
Gen de Gallifet, the new minister of
war For rs years he had lived in
| comparative obscurity attending only
to his military duties and not mixing
in public affairs. But his name was
remembered and hated by all the So
cialists and agitators in France as the
officer who repressed the commune
with such stern and effectual severity.
His entrance into the Chamber was
hailed with 'Vlve la Commune! "A
bias rassassin." "a bias les fusilleurs.'
and a furious debate ragged around his
actions during the "bloody week" M
Millerand, who represents the extreme
Of French Socialism, was hard put to
| 10; Lc n ho n
member of the same ministry with the
man who had shot down his friends
and sympathizers by hundreds in the
black days that followed Sedan.
Gen De Gallifel was not long in show
ing that the war minister of 1893 was
the strict dsciplinarian he had proved
himself in 1870. He met the abuse of
the Rochefort gang in silence and set
firmly and without bravado about his
task of curbing the refractory officers
who threatened the existing regime.
For this work no man in France was so
well fitted AS a distinguished soldier
and perhaps the greatest authority in
Europe on cavalry maneuvers, he had
the full confidence of the army. As
Royalist by instinct and sympathy, who
had long ago bowed to the wishes Of the
people and submitted loyalty to the re-
public, he was well thought of by both
Republicans and reactionists. With
the Dreyfus affair he had not meddled
general staff, but it was known that he
was on the side of Justice ard revision.
IL was also known that he had en-
pressed himself strongly in the perse-
cution of Col Picquart for whom he
in such way as to antagonize the
had a warm friendship and admiration
both as a soldier and man.
The new minister's first official act
was the issuing of circular to the
military governors of Paris and Lyons
and all the army corps commanders.
Referring to his appointment he said
IT am very much honored and in no
wise frightened" and then followed
holder words than any war loinister
has dared to use in France for q long
while: Il beg you not to forget that If
/ am responsible for the chiefs Of the
army, they are personally responsible |
to me for ali that happens in the corps
over which they hold command. The
implied threat was made good the fol- |
lowing day when Gen Hardschmidt was |
transferred to Rheims, Gen Roger to
Belfort and Col Saxce to Poitiers. |
All these officers had been preaching a |
yelled sedition with view of terrorlz- |
ing the Rennes court martial into COIL
demning Dreyfus again. NJ Cavaisnac |
or NJ Krantz would have allowed them |
to talk the people into an uprising. |
Gen de Gallifet sent them about their |
business at once.
But the veteran martinez did conhne |
himself to the minor offenders. On July |
T the whole world heard with the keen
est delight that Gen Zurlind n had |
been removed from the military govern
orship of Paris. The prosecutor of |
Picquart has at last met 8 man who
rated his apings of Boulanger a t their
just value. He had defied four success
sive ministers to turn him out and not
one had dared to raise a finger against
him. Since then Gen Pellieux and de
Negrer, two of the most Inscriptions
tools of the general staff, have Keen
quietly reduced to harmlessness, and
Gen de Gallifet has made it clear that
the new court-martial will not De al
lowed to travel beyond the lines marked
out for it by the court of cessation.
1t is the single aim of Gen de Gallfet
to liquidate the Dreyfus affair and force
the army to abide by the results. In
his seven weeks of office he has made
the SUPREMACY of the civil power All
actual fact which he did not hesitate to