20 NOVEMBER 1936, Page 2

L'Affaire Salengro Perhaps even the savage Gringoire is satisfied after

M. Salengro's death on Wednesday. The Minister of the Interior had been completely cleared by General Gamclin's committee of enquiry of the charge that during the War he had been sentenced to death for desertion ; on Friday, after one of the most violent scenes even the Chamber has ever witnessed, there was no one who could answer M. Blum's brilliant defence of his colleague. M. Salengro, however, was a Socialist, as Dreyfus was a Jew ; before the War his name had bean among those of the politically suspect on the famous Carnet B ; as Minister of -the Interior- he held one of the most important posts in M. Blum's Cabinet. In the view of the Right, these were sufficient reasons for repealing their unfounded charges against him. His death will add bitterness to the affair, which has been aptly com- pared with the Dreyfus case ; it will certainly make 31. Blum the more anxious to put into effect his proposals, approved by the Chamber, for a law to restrain the unscrupulous attacks of the French Press. M. Maurras of the Action Francaise is already in prison for incitement to murder ; M. Blum may well take action against Gringoire and other papers of the Right who conducted the disgraceful campaign against M. Salengro.