OUR OPINION
The weapons of the German nationalists

The German elections are to take place on December 7. So barely fifteen days separate us from them. It is not surprising that the campaign is getting lively across the Rhine and that we are witnessing the usual machinations and maneuvers.
Let us allow Mr. Stresemann to perform his exercises in flexibility, to slide the rope now to the right, now to the left. But let us not allow the German nationalists to use to their advantage, against German democracy and against France, the weapons that they are forging and those, alas! that some clumsy people from our country have provided them.

The weapons they are forging:
The text of a "memorandum from the French government to the allied powers" is currently being circulated in Germany, which is said to have been obtained there from the American newspaper the Chicago Daily News, and in which Mr. Herriot explains the need to obtain the suppression of General von Seeckt's staff and the annihilation of the Reichswehr by the dislocation of the Gruppen Kommandos.

The German press has not yet published this memorandum. It is obviously holding it in reserve for the last hours. No doubt it would like to launch it in the manner of the Zinoview bomb, famous across the Channel. We can already see the headlines it is meditating: "The latest French claims", "What France is plotting." Without discussing whether these claims, in the event that we had them, would be unjustifiable and whether General von Seeckt serves peace, it is enough here to reply:
This alleged French memorandum is completely fabricated. This document is a fake.

The weapons we are giving to the Deutschnationalen, now:
The German nationalists do not care at all about General von Nathusius, who is not one of them. But it is a fact that the nationalist meetings, deserted these days, are now finding customers again, the words of hate sown by the right-wing press are likely to be better received. The German government (which telegraphed Mr. von Rintegen, the attaché at the German embassy in Paris, who attended the trial of General von Nathusius, to Berlin, is being summoned to make energetic representations to us. Finally, here are the resentments of the war revived to the best of their ability...
All this, why? Because a cleaning lady told her master that she had had to put in a crate intended for Germany four bottles of fine wine and ten mismatched plates, belonging to her. The court martial of Lille, in the opinion of all those present, condemned without sufficient proof von Nathusius, whose defender had upset him.

We do not have a good opinion of our court martials, but we would like their reputation not to go beyond our borders.
The court of Lille therefore misunderstood what justice required. It was also particularly ill-advised, because General Nathusius, of Rhenish origin, had precisely left in Thionville all the witnesses attested the memory of an honest and good man. Finally, from a political point of view, the blunder is serious.
Mr. Herriot could not prevent it. Can he repair it by pardoning? The stakes are high.

HENRY BARDE.