L’Écho d’Alger
- Colonel Ricciotti Garibaldi, arrested in Nice, was an agent provocateur in the pay of the Fascist police
- The Plot against the Spanish Government
- A moving ceremony
L'Écho d'Alger gave its front page to the unravelling of a conspiracy on France's southern border. A Nice dispatch reported that Colonel Ricciotti Garibaldi, an officer of the Legion of Honour, had been held for thirty-six hours by Commissioner Leluc on suspicion of provocation and of betraying his political friends, and that both his homes had been searched; the headline went further and called him an agent provocateur paid by the Fascist police. A Perpignan dispatch described how the Catalan separatist leader Macià and his staff, shadowed by the Sûreté, were arrested without resistance at the villa Denise in Prats de Mollo and driven to the prefecture. A third, largely illegible item described a moving scene involving Macià and a prefect in an old barracks.
Translation
Colonel Ricciotti Garibaldi, arrested in Nice, was an agent provocateur in the pay of the Fascist police
Nice, November 5. — Today, a dramatic turn of events. A man who for thirty-six hours has been struggling in the hands of Commissioner Leluc, a man on whom weighs the most dreadful suspicion of provocation and of treachery toward his political friends, is Colonel Ricciotti Garibaldi, officer of the Legion of Honour. How did the inquiry into the alleged plot against Mussolini come to lead to the questioning and detention of Colonel Garibaldi and to searches of his two homes, on the boulevards Raimbaldi and Rabron? It is the strangest and most painful of detective stories.
The Plot against the Spanish Government
Perpignan, November 5. — Francesco Macia, leader of the separatist insurrectionary movement, and his general staff were arrested yesterday morning at Prats de Mollo in the following circumstances: Recently, a Spanish cook, Ramon Boixeda, rented on behalf of a Spanish personality the villa “Denise,” located at Prats de Mollo, two kilometres from the border. The conspirators from Spain, who arrived on Tuesday, took possession of the villa. Ex-colonel Macia, accompanied by three of his staff officers, arrived at Prats de Mollo on the evening of November 8, by automobile from Paris. They went to [?] the villa, where other insurgents informed them of the measures taken and of the fiasco of the movement. The Sûreté générale had skilfully shadowed all the conspirators, and M. Bringer, commissioner of the Paris mobile brigade, presented himself at the villa this morning at nine o'clock, escorted by inspectors and gendarmes of the Prats de Mollo brigade. Macia assured the commissioner that no resistance would be attempted. Macia and his three lieutenants got into an automobile and were taken under escort to the prefecture at Perpignan. The other conspirators were held in custody on the premises of the Prats gendarmerie.
A moving ceremony
Perpignan, November 5. — [?] the following details on [?] Macia with the [?], in the old barracks [?]. The scene at which [?], prefect of the [?] was not without a [?].
Context
Ricciotti Garibaldi, a famous name in the service of Mussolini's police
The Nice dispatch presents Colonel Ricciotti Garibaldi only as a man under suspicion of provocation and treachery toward his political friends, while the headline states as fact that he was an agent provocateur in the pay of the Fascist police. Later historical accounts support the core of that accusation. Garibaldi, grandson of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the hero of Italian unification, was among the Italian exiles in Paris who joined Francesc Macià's enterprise, but he was not really an anti-fascist fighter; he was a double agent serving Mussolini's political police. The Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana states that Garibaldi, a secret agent of Mussolini's government, denounced the conspiracy to the French police. The Italians had been brought in for their war experience: Macià arranged for exiled Italian anti-fascists who had fought in the war to act as instructors, and many of the Italian volunteers had served in the Garibaldine Legion during the First World War. The paper describes the inquiry as one into an alleged plot against Mussolini, while the Catalan operation in which Garibaldi took part was aimed at Spain.
What Macià planned at Prats de Mollo
The Perpignan dispatch calls Macià the leader of a separatist insurrectionary movement and refers to the movement's fiasco. That movement was Estat Català, and its turn to armed action followed Miguel Primo de Rivera's coup in Spain, whose anti-Catalanist policy reaffirmed the party's commitment to the insurrectionary path. The invading columns were to converge on Olot, occupy the town and proclaim a Catalan Republic. The paper's account of the arrest agrees with later reference works on the key details: the Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana also places the arrest of Macià and his staff on 4 November at the villa Denise in Prats de Molló. The dispatch itself contains an obvious slip. It says Macià reached the village on the evening of 8 November, a date that cannot be correct in a report filed on 5 November.
Internment, expulsion and the Paris trial
The third, barely legible item places Macià in an old barracks at Perpignan. After the arrests, Macià and the other detainees were taken to Perpignan and housed in the barracks of the Senegalese rifle regiment. According to the Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana, a little over a hundred men were held in all, 18 of them Italians. Most of the detainees were expelled, to Belgium according to VilaWeb, and only about twenty leaders were put on trial. Garibaldi himself was among the defendants: the 18 people tried in Paris included two Italians, Arturo Rizzoli and Ricciotti Garibaldi. The trial opened in January 1927 and, in VilaWeb's account, ended in a symbolic sentence of a 200-franc fine and two months' detention for illegal possession of arms, plus expulsion from France. A report in Ara instead says Macià, like Garibaldi, was sentenced to six months, so later accounts differ on the length of the penalty.
Why the French side stressed the Fascist agent
The headline's emphasis on the Fascist police fits the tension between France and Mussolini's Italy. The historian Fermí Rubiralta, speaking at a commemoration reported by Ara, argued that the affair became so famous because of that confrontation: the French government had an interest in publicising the events to highlight the role of an undercover fascist agent. The leak also served the Spanish dictatorship, since Primo de Rivera learned of the planned invasion through Garibaldi. L'Écho d'Alger's front page shows the same emphasis: its headline treats Garibaldi's guilt as established, while the Nice dispatch beneath it still speaks of suspicion and calls the affair the strangest and most painful of detective stories.
Original
Le colonel Ricciotti Garibaldi, arrêté à Nice, était un agent provocateur à la solde de la police fasciste
Nice, 5 novembre. - Aujourd'hui, coup de théâtre. Un homme qui, depuis trente-six heures, se débat entre les mains du commissaire Leluc, un homme sur lequel pèse le plus affreux soupçon de provocations et de traîtrise envers ses amis politiques, c'est le colonel Ricciotti Garibaldi, officier de la Légion d'honneur. Comment l'enquête menée sur le complot présumé à l'égard de Mussolini a-t-elle conduit à interroger, à garder à vue le colonel Garibaldi et à perquisitionner à ses deux domiciles, boulevards Raimbaldi et Rabron? C'est le plus étrange et le plus pénible des romans policiers.
Le Complot contre le Gouvernement espagnol
Perpignan, 5 novembre. - Francesco Macia, chef du mouvement insurrectionnel séparatiste et son état-major furent arrêtés, hier matin, à Prats de Mollo dans les circonstances suivantes: Récemment, un cuisiner espagnol, Ramon Boixeda, louait pour le compte d'une personnalité espagnole la villa «Denise», située à Prats de Mollo, à deux kilomètres de la frontière. Les conjurés d'Espagne arrivés mardi, prirent possession de la villa. L'ex-colonel Macia, accompagné de trois de ses officiers d'état-major, arriva le 8 novembre au soir, à Prats de Mollo, en automobile provenant de Paris. Ils se rendirent à [?] la villa où d'autres insurgés les mirent au courant des mesures prises et du fiasco du mouvement. La Sûreté générale avait habilement pris en filature tous les conjurés et M. Bringer, commissaire de la brigade mobile de Paris, se présentait, ce matin, à neuf heures, à la villa, escorté d'inspecteurs et de gendarmès de la brigade de Prats de Mollo. Macia assura le commissaire qu'aucune résistance ne serait tentée. Macia et ses trois lieutenants montèrent en automobile et furent dirigés sous escorte, sur la préfecture de Perpignan. Les autres conspirateurs furent gardés à vue dans les locaux de la gendarmerie de Prats.
Une émouvante cérémonie
Perpignan, 5 novembre. - [?] les détails suivants sur [?] Macia avec les [?], dahs l'ancienne caserne [?]. La scène à laquelle [?], préfet des [?] ne manqua pas d'une [?].