It was believed on Monday that a second and immense
Panama scandal was about to burst on France. M. Deroalecle and M. Millevoye declared in the Chamber that they were in possession of documents, which they would produce, showing M. Clemenceau to have been guilty of "high treason" for money, and for moment the Chamber half-believed them. There was a furious scene, in which M. Clemenceau gave his opponents the lie direct, and threatened challenges ; while they declared him too infamous to fight with, but it was noted that the Chamber seemed to be hostile to the accused. Next day the Cocarde asserted that it possessed the documents, and that they had been stolen from the English Embassy. On Thursday, however, the formal accusation was made, and was at once seen to be false. M. Clemenceau, it was said, had sold himself to England for .t20,000, the consideration being sup- port in Egypt, and the proofs were letters from Sir Thomas Lister, of the English Foreign Office, palpably forgeries on the face of them. The Chamber, therefore, after a wild scene, in which the accusers were belaboured with abase, acquitted M. Clemenceau by a vote of 382 to 4, and the accusers resigned their seats. We have discussed the affair elsewhere, and need only add here that MM. DerouThde and Millevoye sinned against light; for they had shown the papers to the French Foreign Minister, and he had told them that they were victims of a fraudulent hoax.
Previous page
