14 MARCH 1931, Page 43

* * * * " And thrice he slew the

slain," crambe repetita or toujoun • perdrix are tags which enter the mind when the eye lights upon a book entitled The Truth about Dreyfus (Putnam, 7s. 6d.), which Herr Bernard Schwertfeger has compiled and edited from the Schwartzkoppen Papers. Colonel von Schwartzkoppen, German military attachi in Paris, was the indirect, though innocent, cause of the condemnation of the unfortunate Dreyfus, and now his posthumously published papers retell the whole sordid story. Needless to say, they completely exonerate Dreyfus. Those who still care about a forty-year old scandal can rewhet their interest in it on this intriguing and intimately informed summary of events. For others 1 affaire has a historic interest, for it shook France badly at the time, and revealed a weakness of which she is not wholly cured to-day.. _-

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