THE SEZNEC AFFAIR

Is Brest's alibi correct?

The Morlaix investigating judge has it checked

MORLAIX, July 26 (From our special correspondent) — After yesterday's moving depositions and confrontations, calm reigns today around and inside the Palace.

This morning, the investigating judge Campion received Commissioner Vidal, then Commissioner General and Inspector Chelin, from the Rennes brigade, who arrived this morning from Brest, where they carried out yesterday of research concerning the alibi provided by Seznec for the day of June 13. Today they are continuing this research here with a view to establishing on what date Mr. Métais would have come to Morlaix since it was the day after that day that the tinsmith from Brest would have seen Seznec in Brest. Let us add that M. Campion has summoned M. Metais for tomorrow.

The magistrate then received Mr. Coursin, attorney-at-law of the Quemeneur family. It should be specified that the latter will only file a civil action when Mr. Quéméneur's parents have been heard as witnesses; otherwise, they could no longer be heard in that capacity.

Seznec in his prison

But here is Mr. Chipot, the head warden of the prison, who comes, like every morning, to present his report to the Prosecutor. "Did Seznec sleep well?" And what is his attitude? we ask him.

"I can't tell you how he slept, since he's not in solitary confinement." This morning, during the usual walk, he was taciturn as usual, but very depressed, unlike the previous days.

As food, Seznec wants to stick to the prison diet, although his wife has offered to give him the means to improve his diet. This consists of soup with pulses twice a day, washed down with water. The water in the prison is said to be the purest in the whole city. However, he has already taken a can of sardines as an extra once, another time sausage and 75 cl of wine.

The impression of M° Le Hire

Me Le Hire arrives in turn and only stays a few minutes in the Judge's office. With his usual good grace, he is willing to reserve a short interview for us.

Yesterday evening, at the end of the confrontations, he went to Mrs. Seznec to inform her of the results. He found her very firm: to tell the truth, he had prepared her for this bad news during the day yesterday.

The depositions are overwhelming, undoubtedly, the distinguished defender tells us, but this recognition, although formal, by the four witnesses, could be the result of a collective hypnosis, of a phenomenon of suggestion. We have already seen such extraordinary cases in such matters! and which gave rise to errors duly noted subsequently.

— Yes, but the machine number

- Ah, certainly, the number.

In fact, this last argument of a purely material order seems to us even more overwhelming than the quadruple recognition which is a fact of a cerebral order.

Me Le Hire spoke with Me Belz, attorney at Morlaix, provisional liquidator, who will certainly be maintained as final liquidator at the meeting the day after tomorrow. He will then have full powers to act in the best interests of Seznec.

Mrs. Seznec remains convinced of the innocence of her husband

Finally, to end the morning, we went to Mrs. Seznec's. The two little boys open the door for us and timidly go to warn their mother. Crossing the kitchen where the two little girls and Angèle, the maid, are, we enter the dining room where Mrs. Seznec is seated at the table, arranging various papers. Even before having read the newspapers, she had been informed yesterday by Me Le Hire. She tells us, in turn: she was courageous and was not unduly surprised.

It was not her husband who was seen by the four witnesses, she says, but someone who probably looks like her. When they lived in Saint-Plerre-Quilbignon, there was a soldier in garrison at Brest who looked surprisingly like her husband and whom he often met; isn't that an example?

We then think of the phantasmagorical story that we read somewhere, of the individual with the face with transformations who would have frightened a traveler going from Paris to Brest, on the night of June 13 to 14. This individual would have gone down to Landerneau, after having taken on an advantageous physiognomy which no longer recalled in any way the face in question these days.

As for the typewriter, since it is certain that it comes from Le Havre, where her husband has never been, it was a third party who, in order to lose it, managed to send it to where she was found.

Thus Madame Seznec, calm and confident, has the unshakeable faith of a charcoal-burner in her husband's innocence. We advise Mrs. Seznec to call on her memory for anything that could help provide an alibi for her husband, in Saint-Brieuc, Brest or elsewhere. His memories are confused, especially for M. Metais, from Brest.

- What do you think of all this, she asks us twice.

"If I believed my husband to be guilty," she adds, "I wouldn't have the courage to

carry this cross, especially because of my children, and I would like to see them die, as well as me. I certainly wouldn't kill them, but I would like an epidemic to kill us all.

Miss Quemeneur

This afternoon. Mr. Vidal, accompanied by Mr. Police Commissioner François, went to the sub-prefecture, for a visit that we believe is purely ceremonial.

Towards the end of the afternoon, the examining magistrate received Mlle Quemeneur, one of the sisters of the deceased, to ask her for various information on her brother's affairs, in particular on the strange story of sale to the Soviets of Cadillac cars and chassis and trucks from American stocks, as well as the mysterious Charly, which seems to have existed only in Seznec's imagination.

Me Courtin informs us that, by judgment dated today, the Morlaix court has appointed, at the request of the whole family, as provisional administrator of the property of the deceased, his brother-in-law, Me Pouliquen, notary in Pont-Abbé.

Witnesses from Plouaret

Mr. Campion questioning tomorrow, as a witness, Mr. Métais, the hearing of the witnesses of Plouaret is postponed to the day after tomorrow.

Let us remember who these witnesses are: Mrs. Jacob, with whom Seznec parked his car, supposedly broken down on the evening of June 12, her son, whom Seznec asked for help, around 5 o'clock in the evening, that day, to push the car from the road to the enclosure where the car was parked, and Mr. L..., at whose house Seznec stopped around 8 o'clock in the evening, before taking the train in the direction of Paris. We know that the breakdown appears to have been a pretext for Seznec; Indeed, the young Jacob could not move the car in the small path leading from the road to the farm, Seznec climbed back on the seat, started the engine without difficulty and parked the vehicle in the enclosure. On his return, on the 14th, Seznec left with his car without the slightest repair. was made there.

We remember that on his return to Plouaret, Seznec was carrying a large, seemingly heavy package on his shoulder. Could it be the typewriter? This is what the examining magistrate proposes to establish.