It is a regrettable thing that Frenchmen find it so difficult, find
it, indeed, well nigh impossible to fight fairly. The case of Madame
Caillaux is surely bad enough as it stands without the need for unfair
comment before it comes on for trial. If you say this to a Frenchman he
will probably answer that there is very little hope of a fair trial.
This I do not believe, and if I did believe it and were a Frenchman I
should hate to say it. I could fill this volume with extracts from the
Paris newspapers, of almost any day since Gaston Calmette was killed in
his office, to prove how unfair comments have been on the case while it
is still _sub judice_. I will not weary my readers with long extracts,
however. They would be unpleasant reading, and they would answer no
more purpose than this little but characteristic extract from the
_Patrie_ of the 8th of April. When Madame Caillaux was first put in
prison there was, as I have said, an outcry in the Opposition Press
against the “undue favours which were being shown to her in Saint
Lazare.” The reports of these undue favours were flatly contradicted by
the prison authorities, but the lawyers of another prisoner, a Madame
Vitz, were clever enough to take advantage of the outcry to secure the
comparative comforts of the _pistole_ for their client. Madame Vitz was
already in a weak state of health when she was moved, and she has now
gone mad. This is what the _Patrie_ (a reactionary paper) has to say
about her case: “Madame Caillaux, who enjoys the little and the great
favours of the prison administration, must be satisfied to-day. Another
wish which she recently expressed has just been carried out. Calmette’s
murderess had a neighbour in the cell next to hers, Madame Vitz. Her
counsel, Maître Desbons, obtained, with a great deal of trouble, some
alleviation of her fate, and she was put in the _pistole_ class in
the cell next door to the one occupied by Madame Caillaux. Owing to
her constant annoyance at the extraordinary favours with which Madame
Caillaux was treated Madame Vitz has gone mad. In her cell she was
always calling out ‘Madame Caillaux! Madame Caillaux!’ and screaming.
The wife of the ex-Minister of Finance complained of her neighbourhood.
The director of the prison bowed to her wishes, and had Madame Vitz
removed to the prison infirmary.” Can anything be more grossly, more
stupidly, and childishly unfair than this attempt to alienate sympathy
from Madame Vitz’s neighbour? I have quoted it because it is short,
but any Paris paper of the _Patrie_ type unfortunately provides more
material of the same kind daily than I should care to translate or my
readers would care to read. I should not be surprised if many of the
comments in the London newspapers suffered considerably and indirectly
from the unfairness of many of the newspapers in Paris while the case
has been _sub judice_. The reason for this is very simple. In Paris
there are six evening papers of any importance. These are the _Patrie_,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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