Le Figaro
- WE MUST TACKLE THE FRANCO-ITALIAN PROBLEM
- THE CRIME OF SOLITUDE
- Fakirs and sorcerers.
Le Figaro's front page led with a signed column by François Coty arguing that France had to face the Franco-Italian problem head-on. He dismissed the charge that Italy had pushed Spain to demand a privileged position in Tangier, and claimed the incident had been staged to damage Franco-Italian friendship. From the Douai assizes, a special correspondent opened his report by recalling Professor Gilbert Ballet's view that criminal responsibility is a question for jurors, not for medicine. A short item from Bombay described a fakir who drank prussic acid in front of doctors and seemed to enjoy it.
Translation
WE MUST TACKLE THE FRANCO-ITALIAN PROBLEM
Many inaccurate things have been said and written about the latest incidents concerning the statute of Tangier. Italy has, for example, been accused of inciting Spain to demand a privileged position in Tangier from France. People have asked, with a show of anxiety, what Italy was aiming at by stirring up new difficulties for France. Yet nothing is less well founded than these accusations. But the incident was devised only so that it could be exploited, once again, to the detriment of Franco-Italian friendship.
THE CRIME OF SOLITUDE
DOUAI, October 28. (From our special correspondent.) — "Is the accused responsible?" a presiding judge of the assize court once asked Professor Gilbert Ballet. And the great physician, who was also a master orator, replied: "Responsibility is a matter for the jurors. It is not medicine. It is a philosophical or religious question.
Fakirs and sorcerers.
In Bombay a fakir, Siak Pruch Sevamij, swallowed a large dose of prussic acid in front of a large audience that included doctors, and it did him no harm at all. And when a doctor seemed to dare him to drink a bottle of hydrocyanide, the fakir drank that dreadful poison with every sign of the keenest pleasure.
Context
Spain's 1926 bid for control of the Tangier zone
The "latest incidents" over the Tangier statute that open Coty's column most likely refer to a Spanish initiative from the summer of 1926. On 14 August, acting on instructions from Primo de Rivera, Spain's foreign minister told the U.S. ambassador that Spain wanted control of the International Zone. He said Spain would propose incorporating the zone into the Spanish protectorate or, failing that, ask the interested powers for a twelve- to fifteen-year mandate as a trial period before final cession. A Spanish note followed, inviting the United States, France, Britain, Italy and the other states adhering to the Tangier statute to a conference at Geneva on 1 September. The conference was to examine Spain's wish to merge the International Zone with the Spanish Zone. That demand for a special position, made against an international regime that included France, is probably what Coty's readers had in mind.
Why Italy was drawn into the Tangier affair
American diplomatic records show why French commentators connected Italy with the Spanish move, although they do not settle Coty's main point. The same August telegram reported that Spain and Britain had agreed to let Italy take part in administering the International Zone if Italy adhered to the statute, and that negotiations to that end were under way in Rome. France had not yet agreed and had referred the proposal to experts. Spain and Italy had also signed a Treaty of Friendship, Conciliation and Judicial Settlement on 7 August 1926, a convention that, as the ambassador noted, had drawn much comment in the European press. If those negotiations succeeded, Italy stood to gain a role in Tangier. Coty's claims that the accusations against Italy were baseless and that the incident was "devised" to harm Franco-Italian friendship are the columnist's own argument. The American documents record the negotiations but do not show who prompted whom.
Tunisia's Italians and a convention renewed every three months
Coty's headline points to the whole Franco-Italian problem. Besides Tangier, France and Italy had a long-standing dispute over the Italians of Tunisia. One of the three Franco-Italian conventions of 28 September 1896 dealt with consular matters and governed the status of Italians in the Regency. A Franco-Italian arrangement of 1919 denounced that consular convention in principle, but kept it in force on a quarterly basis until negotiations on the Italians' future status could begin. According to a French article of 1937, those three-month extensions continued until the 1935 Laval agreements, so no new convention had replaced the 1896 regime by 1926. Nationality was a central issue. A French law of 20 December 1923 made people born in the Regency to a parent who had also been born there French automatically, but the Italian government opposed applying it to its nationals. France therefore had to rely on voluntary naturalization for Italians. The 1937 article itself speaks of Italian irredentism treating Tunisia as a "colonial Alsace-Lorraine", which shows that it was written from a French point of view.
The Lefebvre trial at the Douai assizes
In October 1926 the Douai assize court tried Marie Lefebvre, a woman from the Nord who had shot her pregnant daughter-in-law. On 26 August 1925, during a car outing with her son and his wife, Lefebvre put a revolver to the young woman's temple and killed her. During the trial she showed no remorse, and the medico-legal experts found her responsible for her actions. She was sentenced to death, and in December 1926 a presidential pardon commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. Le Figaro covered the case at length and gave space to many experts. The selected passage does not name the accused, but its date, the court and its subject, criminal responsibility, all match this trial. By opening with Ballet's remark that responsibility belongs to the jurors and not to medicine, the correspondent framed the case as a contest between expert opinion and the jury's judgment.
Original
IL FAUT ABORDER LE PROBLÈME FRANCO-ITALIEN
On a dit et on a écrit beaucoup de choses inexactes sur les derniers incidents relatifs au statut de Tanger. On a, par exemple, accusé l'Italie d'avoir incité l'Espagne à réclamer de la France une situation privilégiée à Tanger; on a demandé, avec une affectation d'inquiétude, quel but visait l'Italie en suscitant à la France des difficultés nouvelles. Or, rien n'est moins fondé que ces accusations. Mais l'incident ne fut imaginé que pour être exploité, une fois encore, au détriment de l'amitié franco-italienne.
LE CRIME DE LA SOLITUDE
DOUAI, 28 octobre. (De notre envoyé [?] pécial.) - L'accusé est-il responsable? [?] emandait un jour un président d'assises [?] u professeur Gilbert Ballet. Et le grand [?] édecin, qui fut aussi un maître orateur, [?] épondait: «La responsabilité, cela regarde les [?] urés. Ce n'est pas de la médecine. C'est [?] ne question philosophique ou religieuse.
Fakirs et sorciers.
A Bombay, un fakir, Siak Pruch Sevamij, a, en présence d'un public nombreux, parmi lequel se trouvaient des médecins, absorbé une forte dose d'acide prussique sans en être incommodé. Et comme un médecin semblait le défier d'absorber une bouteille d'hydrocyanure, le fakir a bu cet affreux poison en donnant les marques du plus vif plaisir.