France's Second Treason Trial.
Duval, who was director of the suppressed Germanophile newspaper, Bonnet Rouge, was condemned to death May 15 by court-martial for treason, and six other defendants were sentenced to imprisonment: Marion, assistant manager, for ten years; Landau, a reporter, eight years; Goldsky, a reporter, eight years; Joucla, a reporter, five years; Vercasson, two years and $1,000 fine; Leymarie, former director of the Ministry of the Interior, two years' imprisonment and $200 fine.
The Bonnet Rouge was an evening paper of decided pacifist tendency, which lost no occasion of belittling the military and political leaders and policy, not only of France, but also of England. The attention of the Government was drawn to it early in 1917, and its editor, Almeyreda, and its manager, Duval, were under lock and key by August, 1917.
The police investigations showed that the Bonnet Rouge was to a great extent dependent for its capital upon men whose ardor in the allied cause had not been notable, and revealed the astonishing fact that M. Malvy, as Minister of the Interior, had thought fit to subsidize the paper to the extent of $1,200 a month and to encourage it in other ways. It also became known to the public that Almeyreda before the war had been in the closest contact with M. Caillaux and that he had received from that politician, at the moment when Mme. Caillaux was being tried for the murder of M. Calmette, the editor of the Figaro, the sum of $8,000.
Duval, whose journeys to Switzerland had aroused the misgivings of the Government, was detained at the French frontier station, searched, and found to be in possession of a check for $32,800 drawn to the order of a Mannheim banking firm, the business relations of which will appear in subsequent trials. This check was photographed and was handed back to Duval by some one of the French military or civil secret service officials.
Almeyreda had hardly reached prison when he fell seriously ill and was removed to the infirmary prison at Fresnes. There he died. The official doctors first of all declared that he had been strangled, and then gave it as their opinion that he had committed suicide.
Louis J. Malvy, who was at the time Under Secretary of the Interior, and was Minister of the Interior under Ribot, will be tried by a parliamentary court on the charge of having been in personal relations with Duval and of having delivered to the Germans the scheme of the abruptly ended French offensive in the Champagne in April, 1917.