from Madame Gueydan-Caillaux, the divorced wife of Monsieur Dupré, and
that his present wife was the divorced wife of another man. Monsieur
Caillaux in his evidence to Monsieur Boucard declared, however, that
the stories of a disunion in his married life were absolute nonsense,
and that it was so absurd to say that there was any disunion between
him and his present wife that the two of them used to laugh at the
gossip to which I have referred. He added that there was no reason for
any personal animosity towards himself on Monsieur Calmette’s part, and
that he had never given him any reason for such animosity. “On several
occasions,” he said, “during the last few months I was asked to start a
campaign against Monsieur Calmette personally, and papers to support it
were brought to me. I always refused these offers.” Monsieur Caillaux
then spoke of the other documents in Monsieur Calmette’s possession.
These were of course the letter written by the Procureur Général,
Monsieur Victor Fabre, which Monsieur Barthou read in the Chamber of
Deputies on March 17, and other documents which are known as “the green
papers.” These were telegrams and copies of telegrams referring to
the incident of Agadir. They were of so grave a nature that Monsieur
Calmette had been asked not to publish them for diplomatic reasons. “I
should like to point out” (said Monsieur Caillaux), “that I could have
no possible fear personally of the publication of these documents. On
the contrary I should as far as I am myself concerned have been glad
to see them published. A day will come when time has smoothed over
old sores, and I shall be able to speak freely. I have written a book
on Agadir, and it will be seen when that can be published that the
documents, the letters, and the telegrams in this book will convince
all Frenchmen, not only of my patriotism, but of my political clearness
of vision.” Monsieur Caillaux declared that he knew exactly what was
going on in the _Figaro_ office, and that he knew that Monsieur
Calmette would make use of any weapons in his power to cause his
overthrow. He then referred to a conversation in the street under a
gas lamp between Monsieur Barthou and Madame Gueydan, his, Monsieur
Caillaux’s, former wife. During this conversation, he said, Madame
Gueydan had read extracts from letters to Monsieur Barthou, and
Monsieur Caillaux declared that he had understood from Monsieur Barthou
that these letters were the two private letters which had been stolen
from him. The examining magistrate confronted Monsieur Barthou and
Monsieur Caillaux at this point, and Monsieur Barthou stated that
Monsieur Caillaux must have been mistaken. It was true that he had
had a conversation with Madame Gueydan, but the letters she read to
him were the Fabre letter and the “Ton Jo” letter, and it was to them
that Monsieur Barthou had alluded afterwards in his conversation with
Monsieur Caillaux. When the “Ton Jo” letter appeared in the _Figaro_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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