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

said
II wish to be allowed to reply.
ssYou shaE' said Colonel Jouaust
Colonel Picquart, continuing, said:-
81 protest absolutely against the alle-
cation that consented to the commune
cation of secret documents to the mem
bers of the Dreyfus court martial with
out the prisoners knowledge. never or
dered such communication. and If it was
done 1t was not with my cognizance.
Il hasten to add that in my opinion
1t would have been an insult to the
court to believe its members would lend
themselves to such Vaccinations.
T am ready, I repeat, to reply to every
question. l will only point out that all
General Roget has recounted in detail
was published in general terms, in the
"Gaulois" January Z.
Having thus explained certain mat
ters, I will continue my deposition"
Then the Colonel proceeded to discuss
the phrase. occurring in the bordereau.
II am going to the manoeuvres." He said
there was no question of probationers go
ing to the manoeuvres in September.
This. he pointed out. would have curtaii-
ed their period of probation in an en-
tirely unusual manner
After dealing with the testimony of the
experts at the court martial of 1884, Pic
quart proceeded to examine the secret
dossier, close analysis Of which, he as
serted, was particularly necessary, owing
to the weight the document had with the
members of the court martial in 1894.
This dossier continued the wit
ness. may be divided into two parts.
"The first, contains three Documents
"one-A document known as the
D. D'Avignon document, the terms OF
which are about as follows:-'Doubt the
proofs Service letters. Situation dam
gerous for me with French officer No
information from an officer of the line.
Important only as coming from the
Ministry Already somewhere else
"Two-The document containing the
words sCette Canaille de D.
.sThree-A document which is nothing
hut the report of a journey to Switzer-
land made in behalf OF a Foreign power.
.aThe second part of the dcssier. con-
tinued Picauart, consisted partly OF a
supplementary review of the first. It con-
tained the gist of seven or eight docu-
ments. one of which, 'Cette Canaille DE
D viii serve for the purposes OF com
parison.
at also contained the correspondence
of Attaches "A b.
These initials. should be borne IN mino'
represent Colonel Schwartzkoppen, form
erly Military Attache at Paris. and MAJOR
Panizzardi. the former Military Attache
Of italy at the French capital
At this juneture the Colonel SAID It
ia faeil;+ate his explanations if he
we're permitted to see the secret dossler,
81 nave already had it in my hands
bnt fear my memory may fail me on
some points" rs,aon+
of tba court martial sis impossible me
Ministers orders are absolute. me
secret dossier can only be examined under
certain conditions"
"T regret it." answered Picquart, pul
will trv to refresh my memory
The witness next explained why MAJOR
Du Patty de CLAIMS translation OF ele
D,Avignon document which has been
classed as idiotic, was open to DOUBT. ana
why the document, if it had any meaning
whatever was as applicable to Esternazy
as to Dreyfus-
Regarding the correspondence Oh the
military attaches the witness demon
strated the insignfficance of the informal
tion asked for While Patty de Clam re-
garded the correspondence as convincing
and as clearly indicating an officer Of the
Second Bureau, Picquart maintained that
the terms of the correspondence indicated
that the writer intended to ask friend,
and not a spy, for the information de-
sired. Many Headquarters officers, ne
pointed out. were on cordial and abso-
lutely legitimate terms with the foreign
military attaches.
Colonel Picquart then took up the
"Cette Canaille de D. document. He
called the attention of the Court to the
fact that it was addressed by Schwartz
koppen to Panazzardi, and not vice versa
as long believed.
After giving his reason for believing
Dreyfus was not the person referred to
in that document, Picquart showed how
Patty de Clam endeavored to ascribe the
authorship of the document upon Paniz-
zardi with the view of establishing con-
nection which, in reality, did not exist,
between the various documents in the in
dictment against Dreyfus.
The document referring to the French
agents journey to Switzerland, of which
Schwartzkoppen is said to have been in
formed, was only slightly commented
upon by the witness as he did not attach
importance to it.
The minute detail with which the
Colonel dealt with the evidence the
clearness of his language and his deduc-
tions had great effect upon the audience
and elected general admiration.
The former chief of the Intelligence
Department concluded his examination of
the first portion of the secret dossier by
saying:-
May I be allowed to express deep re-
gret at the absence of Major Du Patty de
Clam. 1t seems to me Indispensable that
this officer, who wrote the commentaries
on the secret dossier, should be summoned
to give evidence here. He would give us
his "reminiscences. and would help him .
Laughter.)
But added Picquart, since I am
dealing with this question of the COM
mentaries Of Major Du Patty de Clam,
permit me to point out to you, gentlemen,
thatsthis document was not the property
of any particular Minister. 1t was ciassi-
fled as belonging to the Intelligence De-
partment, and as you see, it formed part
of a well-defined dossier--a dossier which
was shut UP in one of the drawers of my
desk, and which was abstracted from it.
This commentary, therefore is upon a
secret dossier document which was inn