The Dayton forum. [volume] (Dayton, Ohio) 1913-1949, 1937-07-09

IN pToVlacldi riSiSii soai V 1As
is guilty OF stealing bicycle.
There's no doubt OF that. The case Is
clear. The Judge condemns him There's
nothing else to do
Albert, a simple, adenoidal youth, has
been in trouble with the law before.
This affair makes, in fact, his seventh
Five were insignificant. Once he got
four months This time he gets four
months. again
In sentencing him, the judge sem
tences him for life--and, almost newt
ably. to death
Life Imprisonment IN Guiana will
probably not mean long imprisonment
for Albert because if he follows the
example Of the average prisoner there.
he will die in four years.
Albert is caught in the meshes of the
Law of May 81. 1895. defining "relega-
fion.n The first article of this law an
nounces that .srelegation" shall consist
of internment in perpetuity in the terri
tory OF the colonies. It goes on TO
describe what relegated persons are.
Relegated persons are those who in
10 years have been twice condemned
to forced labor. or once TO forced LABOR
and twice to Imprisonment for theft or
crime. or to four jail terms OF more
than three months. or to seven terms
of which two We're for more than three
months
Since Albert is between Il and 90
years OF age, the law applies.
So. because inside 10 years Albert
stole a bicycle, stole something else
equally valuable, and five other times
ran counter TO the law in minor ways,
Albert is doomed to endure the tortures
of evil and brutal company. prevalent
disease, continuous toll as long as his
health will stand it. without hope OF
ever emerging from this situation, IN a
strange ard terrifying land under a
ferocioas temperature and worse than
ferocious humidity. until he Is dead
THAT is the remarkable situation
= which tile Popular Front government
under Leon Blum made an initial effort
to change when, last autumn. it cam
celed the sailing Of the sinister steam
ship aLa Martiniere'' from st. Martin
de Re with, perhaps, 800 prisoners
aboard bound for French Guiana's penal
colony.
Albert and the scores like him who
were to make up last autumn's ship
ment are now distributed throughout
France IN various prisons Their posi-
ton is most uncertain. Probably they
don't like it. The Blum government may
change at any moment, and Albert be
belatedly shipped of anyhow 10 Cav
Gnne-
But if Albert is sensible, he viii be
happy as long as he stays in France.
La French prison. he will have o
cell to himself at night In Guiana he
viii not. There he would be brigaded
with other men, most of them older
and tougher than himself They would
take what little money ne has from him.
they would torment him. they would
raise the curtains on ideas and pas
sions and even expressions which pro-
vineial Albert. for all his staggering
around the market place as the bad boy
of his village, has never heard.
They would infect him, by proximity,
with whatever diseases are going IN
that particular barrack They might
even cut his belly open some night
If Albert is a little rash in his OBJ
servations. and leave him for the rec
ants TO nibble before ne Is discovered
in the morning and carted of at S p. m
TO the Bamboos, the local burial ground
In France, he will be merely a pris-
oner. In Guiana he would also be ar
object of contempt He has neither