L’Écho d’Alger
- At the Presidency of the Council
- In Military Aviation
- The Exploits of the Adventurer Rème
L'Écho d'Alger's front page of 8 October 1926 carried Paris political news from Raymond Poincaré's National Union government. One measure was being sent to the Finance Ministry's departments for study before the cabinet ratified it the following week. Briand was expected to brief ministers on incidents in the Rhineland and recent events in Germany. Poincaré received the Keeper of the Seals, Louis Barthou, and the secretary-general of the civil servants' federation was received by M. Ribère about equalizing pay. A fragment of an editorial accused the Cartel of having grabbed every post over the previous two years and called on the executive to step in. A dispatch reported that the War Minister had issued a circular to prevent fatal accidents in military aviation. From Lyon, the paper reported that the swindler Rème, back from Algeria, was taken under heavy escort to the examining magistrate and admitted that he had been to Geneva.
This edition covers three short legible passages: the headlines, subheads and a few opening lines. The first two passages begin with the end of an earlier article, and both the editorial and the aviation dispatch stop mid-sentence. Most body text on the page is too low-resolution to read. Damaged OCR words, names and figures in the body were not reconstructed. This reading does not establish who Rème was, which accidents led to the aviation circular, or what Poincaré and Barthou discussed.
Translation
At the Presidency of the Council
[?] public, it will be referred, for study, to the departments of the Ministry of Finance and will not be submitted for final ratification by the Council of Ministers until next week. M. Briand will no doubt also brief the Council on foreign affairs, notably the incidents in the Rhineland and the latest events in Germany.
At the Presidency of the Council
THE KEEPER OF THE SEALS CALLS ON M. POINCARÉ
Paris, October 7. – M. Raymond Poincaré this morning received M. Barthou, Keeper of the Seals.
THE EQUALIZATION OF CIVIL SERVANTS' SALARIES
In addition, M. Laurent, secretary-general of the Federation of Civil Servants, was received by M. Ribère,
In Military Aviation
the Cabinet lets its opponents exploit, as they are doing at this moment – and the government is not unaware of it – the beginning of reform it has undertaken. Intervention by the executive power is imperative because, for two years, the Cartel has exaggerated the displays of its omnipotence. It wanted, as it has admitted, all the posts. It claimed to occupy every avenue of power. Its creatures are everywhere. Such a situation is incompatible with the policy of a Cabinet of National Union.
In Military Aviation
TO PREVENT ACCIDENTS
A circular from the Minister of War
Paris, October 7. – Several fatal accidents, caused by col-
The Exploits of the Adventurer Rème
5, Bd Montmartre, Paris (2e) Telephone: Gutenberg 74-64. Advertisements are also accepted at the Agence Havas.
The exploits of the adventurer Rème
THE CLEVER SWINDLER DESCRIBES HIS LANDING ON HIS RETURN FROM ALGERIA
Lyon, October 7. – The examining magistrate today heard Rème. Extraordinary measures had been taken for his transfer. The prison van was escorted so as to prevent any attempt at escape. Under questioning, Rème, after denying that he had gone to Grenoble, admitted having gone to Geneva.
Context
Poincaré's National Union cabinet in October 1926
The first item shows the government at work about eleven weeks after Raymond Poincaré returned to power. A financial crisis brought him back in 1926, and he served as both Prime Minister and Finance Minister until 1929. That double role helps explain why a measure discussed at the Presidency of the Council was sent to the Finance Ministry's own departments before the cabinet ratified it. His fourth ministry gave Foreign Affairs to Aristide Briand, War to Paul Painlevé and the Interior to Albert Sarraut. Briand had led the previous government, which Poincaré replaced in 1926, so a briefing from Briand on the Rhineland and Germany came from the former Prime Minister, who now ran foreign policy. Louis Barthou, the Keeper of the Seals, was a leading figure in this ministry: Senate records show him reading the ministerial declaration on 27 July 1926. The fragment reports only that Poincaré received Barthou that morning. Neither the paper nor the sources available here say what the two men discussed.
The Cartel des Gauches and the editorial's charge
The editorial fragment blames "the Cartel" for two years of grabbing posts. The Cartel des Gauches came out of Painlevé's partnership with Édouard Herriot and won the elections of May 1924, which also defeated Poincaré's conservative coalition. Herriot became Prime Minister in June 1924. A financial crisis followed the fall of the franc, and Herriot's government fell in April 1925. The "two years" therefore cover the period from the 1924 victory to Poincaré's return in July 1926. The "Cabinet of National Union" the paper defends was not purely conservative, however. Herriot himself held the post of Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts in Poincaré's fourth ministry. Read against that background, the editorial was demanding that a mixed coalition remove the Cartel's appointees from the administration. The claim that the Cartel's "creatures are everywhere" is the paper's partisan argument and not an established finding.
Reform by decree in 1926
The editorial mentions a "beginning of reform" that the cabinet had undertaken and that its opponents were exploiting, and it calls for the executive to intervene. In 1926 the Poincaré government did reorganize the administration by executive decree. The Poincaré–Sarraut decrees of that year were studied in a 1927 Grenoble law thesis, which has a chapter on the abolition of the conseils de préfecture, the prefectural councils that acted as local administrative courts. These decrees show that the government was reshaping state institutions by decree in 1926. The surviving fragment does not name the reform it has in mind, so it cannot be tied for certain to any single decree.
The War Minister behind the aviation circular
The circular on military aviation accidents came from the Minister of War, who in October 1926 was Paul Painlevé. He had been War Minister under Briand, kept the post when Poincaré took over in 1926, and held it until July 1929. Painlevé was also a mathematician with a long interest in flying. In 1908 he became Wilbur Wright's first airplane passenger in France, and in 1909 he created the first university course in aeronautics. Military aviation then came under the War Ministry because France had no separate air minister: the cabinet lists show Laurent Eynac joining as Minister of Air only in September 1928. The fragment breaks off just as it begins to describe the causes of several fatal accidents. It therefore does not establish which crashes led to the circular.
Original
A la Présidence du Conseil
[?] public, il sera renvoyé, pour étude, aux services du ministère des Finances et ne sera soumis définitivement à la ratification du Conseil des Ministres que la semaine prochaine. M. Briand mettra, sans doute, aussi le Conseil au courant des affaires extérieures, notamment des incidents de Rhénanie et des derniers événements d'Allemagne. A la Présidence du Conseil LE GARDE DES SCEAUX CHEZ M. POINCARE Paris, 7 octobre. - M. Raymond Poincaré a reçu, ce matin, M. Barthou, garde des Sceaux. LA PEREQUATION DES TRAITEMENTS DES FONCTIONNAIRES D'autre part, M. Laurent, secrétaire général de la Fédération des Fonctionnaires a été reçu par M. Ribère,
Dans l'Aviation Militaire
le Cabinet laisse ses adversaires exploiter comme ils le font, en ce moment - et le gouvernement ne l'ignore pas - le commencement de réforme qu'il a entrepris. L'intervention du pouvoir exécutif s'impose parce que, pendant deux ans, le Cartel a exagéré les manifestations de son omnipotence. Il a voulu, comme il l'a avoué, toutes les places. Il a prétendu occuper toutes les avenues du pouvoir. Ses créatures sont partout. Une telle situation est incompatible avec la politique d'un Cabinet d'Union Nationale. Dans l'Aviation Militaire POUR PREVENIR les ACCIDENTS Une circulaire du Ministre de la Guerre Paris, 7 octobre. - Plusieurs accidents mortels, provoqués par des col -
Les exploits de l'aventurier Rème
5, Bd Montmartre, Paris (2e) Téléphone: Gutenberg 74-64 Les annonces sont également reçues à l'Agence Havas Les exploits de l'aventurier Rème L'HABILE ESCROC RACONTE SON DEBARQUEMENT A SON RETOUR D'ALGERIE Lyon, 7 octobre. - Le juge d'instruction a entendu aujourd'hui Rème. Des mesures extraordinaires avaient été prises pour son transfert. L'automobile cellulaire était escortée de façon à éviter toute tentative d'évasion. Interrogé, Rème, après avoir nié être allé à Grenoble, reconnut être allé à Genève.