M. Caillaux in his enforced seclusion has written a book
in which he openly denounces the Franco-British understanding and avows himself our bitter enemy. The summary of the book, which appeared in the Times of Friday, December 17th fully explains why the French Government felt it necessary to put M. Caillaux under lock and key during the critical years of the war. He had actually planned a coup d'etal in 1917, in which he intended to use General Barran to overthrow the Government of the Republic. It is easy to imagine how the Germans would have welcomed such a traitor-blow at the heart of the Alliance, and how embarrassed Great Britain, America, and Italy would have been by the enforced submission of France to the enemy. It says much for French tolerance that Caillaux was not severely punished for his plottings. The Senate, however, knew that his anti-British and pro-German views were shared by only a very small and negligible clique.
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