The " Affaire Stavisky " The darker side of French
political life is revealed by the use which has been made of the Affaire Stavisky to endeavour to discredit the Ministry. Serge Stavisky Was a successful swindler on the grand scale, whose criminal antecedents did not prevent him from starting the Credit Municipal of Bayonne, which was recognized as a State- controlled municipal pawnshop. The story of his huge speculations and frauds, the establishment of a con- federate as manager of the credit, the issue of worthless bonds to the tune of millions of pounds, his denunciation and suicide—all of this, exciting as it may be, is not the most significant part of the affair. What turns it into a matter of the first national importance is the attempt of the political Opposition to saddle the Government of the day, and in particular M. Dalimier, who was Minister for the Colonies, with complicity. The latter has been compelled to resign because, when he was in M. Herriot's administration, he signed in the course of routine certain official letters recommending the placing of municipal bonds. The orgy of accusations against highly-placed persons has not even stopped short of suggesting that the Ministry is guilty of ordering the police to shoot the fugitive Stavisky and call it " suicide." * * * *
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