Le Figaro
- JUSTICE Needs Judges
- THE CLOSED VESSEL
- M. Stresemann's Diplomatic Orchestration
This Figaro front page carried three signed opinion pieces on politics. Henri Vonoven used Justice Minister Louis Barthou's own report to argue that the new cut in the number of courts reflected a real shortage of judges: 97 substitute-judge posts could not be filled and fewer candidates sat the examinations. He blamed poor pay, noting that a magistrate earned a tenth of what a grain broker or speculator made. Louis Bertrand said France was a "closed vessel" that did not know how it looked from outside. He argued that after the recent attack on Mussolini, French replies to Italian complaints had missed the real point. Alfred Mallet welcomed Stresemann's praise of Franco-German rapprochement in his Cologne speech but rejected his demand to evacuate the Rhineland. He insisted that evacuation depended on reparations and German disarmament.
Translation
JUSTICE Needs Judges
[?] Not enough notice has been taken, among the arguments M. Louis Barthou put forward in defence of his reform, of a sentence in one of his latest reports. He explained that the "movement" that followed from his decrees remedied an unfortunate state of affairs by reducing the number of posts left without incumbents for want of any candidates at all. Another observation, the Minister of Justice wrote, imposes itself with quite particular force: substitute judges could no longer be recruited (there are at present ninety-seven vacancies that it has been impossible to fill), and from one competitive examination to the next a worrying decline was observed in both the number and the quality of the candidates. It is no exaggeration to say that the moment had come when, with satisfactory recruitment impossible, the functioning of justice would no longer be ensured, even by makeshift means... And last week M. Prouharam, former director of personnel at the Place Vendôme and now head of the Seine public prosecutor's office, summed up these findings in two condensed formulas: "There is no more recruitment," he said. "The examinations are emptying for lack of candidates." Thus the reduction in the number of courts was brought about not only by budgetary economy but by a shortage of judges... Alas, it will be said, the army, the diplomatic service and the university are going through a similar crisis. The State can no longer find senior officials because it does not pay them what they are worth... Let us speak only of judges. What is the point of binding oneself for twenty years and more to the severe study of law, only to end up earning ten times less than some grain broker, car salesman or stock-market speculator? Those people have their car; the magistrate without private means will take the bus for his entire career. [?]
THE CLOSED VESSEL
[?] The "closed vessel" is the French Republic, which, in Bismarck's phrase, goes on sadly stewing in its own juice, without the slightest suspicion of what is happening in the rest of the planet, nor above all of what is thought of it outside its enclosure. One might perhaps have hoped that the lesson of 1914 would change these routine habits a little. The latest Franco-Italian incident has just proved to us that those hopes were vain. It is all very well to assure us that the incident has been smoothed over, that assurances of mutual friendship have been exchanged between our ambassador in Rome and M. Mussolini: it seems quite impossible that a certain cooling between the two nations should not result from it. At the very least there will remain among the Italians a residue of bitterness, rancour and suspicion. Thus Latinity continues to be divided. At all costs France must be prevented from drawing closer to Italy and Spain. It will soon be a century since this little game began. The fact is that many people have an interest in dividing the Latin nations. These ill-meaning people work at it as best they can. And now once again the [?] and a host of misunderstandings, carefully exacerbated by the interested parties, have just helped them in their baleful task. It does not seem that, here at home, even the best-intentioned minds, the most sincere friends of Italy, have really understood the nature of this incident and what the Italians reproach us for, quite rightly in my opinion. They have been reminded that their compatriots commit murder not only at home but also here. The already distant memory of Caserio, and even of Orsini, has been called up. They have been invited to regard the recent attempt on M. Mussolini with the same calm with which we view those historical events. It has also been protested that the great majority of the French loudly condemn these abominable acts... All that is very well, but it is not the question! * * * What the Italians reproach us for, and, [?]! [?]
M. Stresemann's Diplomatic Orchestration
[?] After the drum rolls of the Bierabend at Geneva, here come the notes of the flute. At the congress of the People's Party in Cologne, M. Stresemann on Saturday evening delivered a measured, nuanced speech, of skilful diplomatic orchestration. The first verse was intended for the League of Nations. As was only fitting, M. Stresemann came back delighted with his stay in Geneva. With a very apt touch, he noted the usefulness of this periodic contact between statesmen. He added that the League of Nations should not confine itself to particular questions. Such are the noble ambitions of a neophyte. Is the minister of the Wilhelmstrasse then unaware that the Geneva institution has not shrunk from discussing the highest and most general problems, those of mutual assistance and disarmament, and that, despite the years and the efforts, it does not seem even to glimpse their solution? The verse addressed to France deserves both applause and criticism. M. Stresemann declares that Franco-German rapprochement is the cornerstone of European recovery; he affirms his will to pursue a policy of understanding with France: who would not be glad to hail in such words the dawn of a possible reconciliation and collaboration? Unfortunately the minister of the Wilhelmstrasse, in order to disarm the nationalist opposition, thought it necessary to add some discordant reflections. He demanded, first of all, the evacuation of the Rhineland. Must we remind him that it is conditional, on the one hand, on the assured payment of our reparations and, on the other, on the material and moral disarmament of the Reich? We cannot, once again, drop the substance for the shadow. [?]
Context
Barthou's court reform and the shortage of magistrates
Henri Vonoven built his column on claims made by the Minister of Justice himself. Louis Barthou had become Keeper of the Seals in Raymond Poincaré's government on 23 July 1926, and he held the Justice portfolio until 3 November 1929. It was one of a series of major ministries, War and Justice among them, that this senior moderate politician held throughout the 1920s. When Vonoven wrote, Barthou had therefore been in charge of Justice for barely ten weeks, and the decrees he was defending were recent. According to the column, Barthou's decrees cut the number of courts, and his report justified this by a recruitment crisis. Ninety-seven substitute-judge posts could not be filled, and each competitive examination drew fewer and weaker candidates. Prouharam, the ministry's former personnel director, said the same. Vonoven turned this administrative argument into one about pay. In his view, the court closures were a symptom of a State that could not reward years of legal training when trade and speculation paid ten times more. He saw the same problem in the army, diplomacy and the universities. The figure of ninety-seven vacancies comes from Barthou's report as quoted in the column.
The September 1926 bomb attack on Mussolini and the France connection
Louis Bertrand does not name the "recent attempt on M. Mussolini," but a recent attack matching that description came on 11 September 1926. That day, in front of Porta Pia in Rome, the anarchist and anti-fascist Gino Lucetti threw a bomb at Mussolini's car. It exploded on the ground and slightly injured eight people, but Mussolini was unharmed. The attack had a French connection. After a shooting the previous year, Lucetti had escaped by ship to Marseille. He then returned to Italy under the false name Ermete Giovannini. That link suggests why Italian anger over the attack could be turned against France, and it gives context to the French replies Bertrand describes. French writers pointed to Italian assassins of the past, Caserio and Orsini, and stressed that most French people condemned such acts. Bertrand called those answers "not the question." The account of the incident itself, including the exchange of friendly assurances between the French ambassador and Mussolini, comes from the column.
Stresemann at Cologne: League membership and the Rhineland
Alfred Mallet's column follows Stresemann home from Geneva. In September 1926, as planned during the Locarno negotiations, Germany had been admitted to the League of Nations. That is the background to Mallet calling Stresemann a "neophyte" who lectured an institution that had long struggled with mutual assistance and disarmament. The congress in Cologne belonged to the German People's Party (DVP), which Stresemann had founded himself. His call for the Rhineland to be evacuated was not new. In a 1923 letter to the former Crown Prince, he called freeing German territory from French and Belgian occupation "the most important objective of German politics." At Locarno he asked for fewer occupation troops in the Rhineland and a shorter occupation. Mallet read the demand as a gesture to the nationalist opposition. That fits the pressure Stresemann faced from German conservatives, who attacked him for meeting the Western powers' demands. Mallet's reply was that evacuation depended on assured reparations and on Germany's material and moral disarmament. This was Mallet's own position.
Original
LA JUSTICE demande des juges
[?] On n'a pas assez remarqué, parmi les arguments produits par M. Louis Barthou pour défendre sa réforme, une phrase d'un de ses derniers rapports. Il expliquait que le «mouvement» consécutif de ses décrets remédiait à un fâcheux état de choses, en réduisant le nombre des postes non pourvus de titulaires, en l'absence de toute candidature. Une autre observation, écrivait le ministre de la justice, s'impose avec une force toute particulière, les juges suppléants ne pouvaient plus être recrutés (Il existe actuellement quatre-vingt-dix-sept vacances qu'il a été impossible de combler) et d'un concours à l'autre on constatait une inquiétante dégression dans la quantité et dans la qualité des candidats. Il n'est pas excessif de dire que le moment était venu où, dans l'impossibilité d'un recrutement satisfaisant le fonctionnement de la justice n'allait plus être assuré, même avec des moyens de fortune... Et l'autre semaine, M. Prouharam, ancien directeur du personnel, place Vendôme, aujourd'hui chef du parquet de la Seine, résumait ces constatations en deux formules condensées: «Il n'y a plus de recrutement, disait-il. Les concours se vident faute de candidats.» Ainsi l'on a été amené à la réduction du nombre des tribunaux non seulement par économie budgétaire, mais par pénurie de juges... Hélas dira-ton, l'armée, la diplomatie, l'université traversent une crise pareille. L'Etat ne trouve plus de hauts fonctionnaires faute de les payer à leur valeur... Ne parlons que des juges. A quoi bon s'astreindre jusqu'à vingt ans et plus à l'étude sévère du droit pour arriver à gagner dix fois moins que tel courtier en grains, vendeur d'automobiles ou spéculateur à la Bourse? Ceux-là ont leur voiture? le magistrat sans fortune, durant sa carrière entière, prendra l'autobus. [?]
LE VASE CLOS
[?] Le «vase clos», c'est la République française, qui, suivant le mot de Bismarck, continue à mijoter tristement dans son jus, sans se douter le moins du monde de ce qui se passe dans le reste de la planète, ni surtout de ce que l'on pense d'elle en dehors de sa clôture. On pouvait peut-être espérer que la leçon de 1914 modifierait un peu ces habitudes routinières. Le dernier incident franco-italien vient de nous prouver que ces espérances étaient vaines. On a beau nous affirmer que l'incident est aplani, que des assurances d'amitié réciproques ont été échangées entre notre ambassadeur à Rome et M. Mussolini: il paraît bien impossible qu'il n'en résulte pas un certain refroidissement entre les deux nations. A tout le moins il en restera, chez les Italiens, un fond d'aigreur, de rancune et de suspicion. Ainsi, la Latinité continue à être divisée. A tout prix, il faut empêcher la France de se rapprocher de l'Italie et de l'Espagne. Il y aura bientôt un siècle que ce petit jeu est commencé. C'est que beaucoup de gens ont intérêt à diviser les nations latines. Ces mauvaises gens s'y emploient de leur mieux. Et voici qu'une fois encore les [?] et une foule de malentendus, soigneusement exaspérés par les intéressés, viennent de les aider dans leur néfaste besogne. Il ne semble pas que, chez nous, même les esprits les mieux intentionnés, les plus sincèrement amis de l'Italie, aient bien compris la nature de cet incident et ce que les Italiens nous reprochent, à mon avis fort justement. On leur a rappelé que leurs compatriotes assassinent non pas seulement chez eux, mais aussi chez nous. On a évoqué le souvenir déjà lointain de Caserio et même d'Orsini. On les a invités à considérer le récent attentat contre M. Mussolini avec le même calme que nous envisageons ces événements historiques. On a protesté aussi que la grande majorité des Français réprouve hautement ces agissements abominables... Tout cela est fort bien, mais ce n'est pas la question! * * * Ce que les Italiens nous reprochent, - et, [?]! [?]
L'orchestration diplomatique de M. Stresemann
[?] Après les roulements de tambour du Bierabend, à Genève, voici des sons de flûte. Au congrès du parti populiste à Cologne, M. Stresemann a prononcé, samedi soir, un discours mesuré, nuancé, d'une savante orchestration diplomatique. Le premier couplet était destiné à la Société des nations. Comme il convenait, M. Stresemann est revenu enchanté de son séjour à Genève. D'un trait fort juste, il a noté l'utilité de cette prise de contact périodique entre les hommes d'Etat. Il a ajouté que la Société des nations ne devait pas se confiner dans les questions particulières. Voilà les nobles ambitions d'un néophyte. Le ministre de la Wilhelmstrasse ignore-t-il donc que l'institution genevoise n'a pas craint de discuter les plus hauts problèmes, les plus généraux: ceux de l'assistance mutuelle et du désarmement; et qu'en dépit des ans et des efforts, elle ne semble pas même entrevoir leur solution? Le couplet à l'égard de la France mérite à la fois des applaudissements et des critiques. M. Stresemann déclare que le rapprochement franco-allemand est la pierre angulaire du relèvement européen; il affirme sa volonté de pratiquer une politique d'entente avec la France: qui ne se plairait à saluer dans de telles paroles l'aube d'une réconciliation et d'une collaboration possibles? Malheureusement le ministre de la Wilhelmstrasse, pour désarmer l'opposition nationaliste, a cru nécessaire d'ajouter des réflexions discordantes. Il a réclamé d'abord l'évacuation de la Rhénanie. Faut-il lui rappeler qu'elle est subordonnée d'une part au paiement assuré de nos réparations, d'autre part au désarmement matériel et moral du Reich? Nous ne pouvons, une fois de plus, lâcher la proie pour l'ombre. [?]