Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-21
AS SEEN BY CLEMENCEAU
Review of Last Weeks Testimony Before
the Rennes Court.
He Declares the Proceedings Are
Mere Talk without Competent
Evidence Being Adduced.

W Tic I>eW IOIh JouTlldi, gives tlle lOlloW-
! ing summary of last weeks evidence pro-
| duced at the Dreyfus court-martiaI at
| Rennes:
The trial at Rennes will surely last
| much longer than was expected at first.
| At this present moment there are enough
| witnesses to occupy the court down to Sep
| TENDER 2, but new witnesses are gathered
| from day to day and held over to the end
| of the present list.
Moreover, some capital questions, such
! as the MERCER Schneider forgery, and an
| other very strong case which has not been
| spoken of yet, and in which Generals Mer-
| cier and Chanoine are strongly implicated,
will surely occupy several sittings of the
court. II matters are to be made clear,
| therefore, there is no use to anticipate the
| end of the debates before the 10th or 18Th
of September. And l should not wonder if
| things came still later to close.
1t is true that some very important wit
nesses have thus far been heard, but it is
a matter of remark that they are much
more important by personal character and
| title than by the weight Of their evidence.
| In fact had they been allowed as law re-
quires, to state only what they personally
know, de visu ct de auditu, they would
| have had but wonderfully little to say.
But this was not the case. For the nrSt
| time in French court witnesses were al
lowed to speak not only of what they
knew, but even and chiefly of what they
| ulQ not Know. some OF them, lluteu
know nothing at all. as they never had at
any time anything to do with the Dreyfus
| case. In spite of this some men, such as
| Cavasnac, Yental, Roget and Major Cuig-
| net, were given full scope to say anything
| they pleased against Dreyfus, and they
had, indeed, lot to say. No facts, no
| documents, were brought, no proofs what
ever but talk, talk, talk. One had exam
| ined the dossier in secret and inferred from
such a document wherefrom Dreyfus'
| name was totally absent, that DreyfuS was,
nevertheless, proved by this very piece OF
paper to be guilty of treason. or course
| this could only be inferred by means of a
| long-drawn-up piece of reasoning, and each
man was allowed to reason it or unreason
| it out as long as he pleased.
| In no English or American, or even
| French. court were such witnesses ever
| seen. But this unfortunate Dreyfus case
| seems to own the strange privilege TO open
every day new avenues from dim light to
deep darkness.
| Another matter of wonder is that the
| French supreme court has increased with
| great care the domain in which the Rennes
| court-martial is called to move. Judges,
| witnesses and the states attorney thus
| far have not taken into account TINS deci-
| sion of the supreme court 1t mas peen
settled for instance, that the boruereau
| was finally recognized as being in the hand
/ writing of Esterhazy and legally the only
| question before the court-martial Is this:
I Has Dreyfus delivered to the German
government the very documents winch rs
| Dreyfus Never Had Dealings With
Esterhazy.
There is not the slightest doubt left that
| Dreyfus had never any connection what
ever, direct or indirect with Esterhazy.
At no time was this point contested. No
body ever argued that the two men ever
had any, So that if the law was followed
the whole trial at Rennes might fairly last
one or two hours. But that Is not possible.
Why make Paul accountable for the trea-
son of Peter? But this would be too plain
The court martial has undertaken to inVes-
tigate the whole matter again without re-
gard to the supreme court inquiry, and, TINS
being granted, all so-called witnesses can
saw ANYTHING they please relating or not re-
lating to the Dreyfus case. You can now
understand why one month will be spent
in idle talk when one hour could settle the
whole matter
General Mercier's evidence was expected
to be a coup de theatre Indeed, 1t was
greatly needed from his own point of view.
In 1884 he had obtained sentence against
Dreyfus by downright violation OF law Inc
law sooner or later Will have to be Vlndl-
Gated General Mercier had said to his
friends This time | shall prove Dreyfus
guilt" The newspapers had been filled
with comments of his boast General Mer-
cier has spoken and as he has brought out
no new fact it cannot be said that he sue
ceeded in making his word good He mas
brought no new fact, but it must be owned
tfllI ne mas DTOCSHt " liSHt uotuiiCsis
which thus far was unknown. 1t was
truth.
Things cannot remain in that condition
Some one has told lie. 1t must be known
who. 1t will be known soon, for Colonel
Schneider will not stand this denial. Either
he will ask to be heard at Rennes or he
will enter a complaint before a French
court against General MERCER.
General MERCER testified that a paper in
the doSSier was report from Colonel
Schneider. the Austrian military attache to
his government. AS the paper had not the
signature of Colonel Schneider at the end
Of the quoted extract, General MERCER as
serted it's authorship loudly, and he asked
that Colonel Schneider be named in the
record the author.
Any man of average common sense might
have taught General MERCER that German
not French is the language spoken in Wen
ma, and that nobody would consent to be-
lieve that an Austrian officer reported in
French to the Austrian minister of war.
There are reasons to believe that General
MERCER himself had some apprehension of
the fact, for upon very superficial investi-
cation Of the document it was found out
that the alleged report was no report at all.
and that the man who produced 1t was so
well aware of the fact that he took the
precaution to write with his own hand the
heading of the report. His object to
give the document the name of a report.
| writing the word piano on chair does
not give the chair any musical power, writ
ing the word report piece of paper
sheet the character of a record.
Thus far it was plain to every one that
General Mercfers capital proof was no
proof at all, since it contains nothing but
opinion secondly, that it had been falsi-
fed in order to give 1t an apparent original
value which 1t had not. Something worse
befell General MERCER. AS the
thing was made public Colonel Schneider,
who is now at Ems, sent telegram stating
that Mercier's document was a forgery, and
that he was not responsible for it. This is
the last stroke.
MERCER Lacked CandOr.
Now, any man can be deceived by a for
ger. but then any earnest man when told
he has been making of forged docu-
ment will oandidly come forth and explain
all the circumstances owing to which he
had the misfortune to be made the instru-
ment of forger. But to everybodys sur
prise Gen. MERCER behaved in a totally
different manner. Since he has been pub
licly told of his error by Schneider he has
not spoken one single word in vindcation
of his conduct
1t is now rumored here that Schneider
will have to come to Paris to call Mercier
to account and oblige him to speak. The
most extraordinary part of the whole bust
ness is that If Gen. MERCER has turned out
deaf and dumb his friends have spoken
very loudly. Mercier's newspaper friends