“And that was all. Captain Lebrun-Renault went into the room assigned to the witnesses for the prosecution, and General Gonse shook hands with the former superintendent of Cherche-Midi.”
This morning we asked Major Forzinetti ...
“And it is because of this concluding paragraph that I read the extract.
This morning we asked Major Forzinetti if the story in “L’Aurore” was true. “Absolutely,” he answered. “I add that there is no trace of any confession on the part of Dreyfus in the report addressed, according to custom, by the captain to his corps commander, concerning his mission as a chief of escort, entrusted to him on the day of degradation. If there is any report from Captain Lebrun-Renault in which such confessions are mentioned, it was made afterward.”
“That, gentlemen, is the point that I desired to establish. If any confessions exist, or, rather, any record of pretended confessions, this record was made long afterward. But we may judge of this matter, not by the declarations of any witnesses whatsoever, but by the attitude of the government, and by that of the prime minister himself. You remember, gentlemen, that a few weeks ago certain members of the Left invited the government to publish these confessions. Whereupon the government published this singular note, officially communicated to the newspapers.
Several journals ask the minister of war to publish the declarations made to Captain Lebrun-Renault by Dreyfus on the day of the execution of the sentence of the council of war. Were the government to publish these, it would call in question, and seem to throw doubt upon, the authority of the thing judged. We are in a position to know, moreover, that the government thinks it has no right to make such a communication, for reasons analogous to those which determined the council of 1894 to order closed doors.
“This note, gentlemen, was followed by an interpellation. M. Godefroy Cavaignac insisted that the government should communicate the document, and the attitude taken by the president is very interesting. Answering M. Cavaignac, M. Méline said:
We are asked the reasons why the government thinks that it may not publish the declaration of Captain Lebrun-Renault, received on the day of the execution of the Dreyfus trial. I admit—and everyone knows it—that there is such a declaration. It seems to me that the note of L’Agence Havas, concerning which M. Cavaignac questions me, said so with sufficient clearness. The first reason why the government thinks that it should not repeat this declaration from the tribune is that the chamber, the parliament, the government, have so far steadily refused—and rightly, in my view—to discuss the matter. From the first we have declared that this affair was of a judicial nature ...
“And when an affair is of a judicial nature, you know the pretence that they make is that it is of a political nature, and that considerations of national defence do not allow the bringing out of the light.
From the first we have declared that this affair was of a judicial nature, and must preserve this character; that the public powers, in handing it over to parliamentary discussion, would completely change its nature, and effect a veritable confusion of powers. Yet to such a discussion M. Cavaignac invites us today. He has proved it by trying to enter into the substance of the matter, and by reading certain pamphlets relating to the case. It is not to be doubted that, if the declaration of Captain Lebrun-Renault were read from the tribune, it would be discussed, for, everything is discussed in this case. The discussion once opened, you could not stop it, and we should soon be involved in a debate concerning the question of revision. The tendency would be to encourage the belief that, without this document, the verdict could not stand. Now we have always proclaimed,—and we repeat it,—that the verdict is sufficient unto itself. It is the legal truth. Nobody has a right to discuss it. This said, I give the last reasons, which are but supplementary to the others, for they are not needed. We consider that the publication would involve serious embarrassments, and the same reasons that determined the judges to order closed doors forbid us to publish this document, the significance of which, however, I do not wish to exaggerate.