FRENCH ARMY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 175, 29 March 1915, Page 7

FRENCH ARMY.

L'AFFAIRE DESCLAUX. .MISAPPROPRIATION OF PROVISIONS AND SUPPLIES. • _ 1 PARIS, March 22. j A court-martial lias opened to inquire into charges against Desclaux (Chief Army Paymaster ami M. Caillauxs sx-secratary) and six others of having misappropriated army provisions and supplies for the benefit of Desclaux’s friend, Madame Bechoff. 1 L’affaire ' Desclaux appears more j curious and yet mor e curious. Rum(ours of a serious charge of espionage 'are authoritatively denied, leaving us ! face to face with the extraordinary i anomaly of a man in high position, I Paymaster to the Forces, with the honorary rank of major, an officer of I the .elision of Honour enjoying a j salary of almost £1,500, stealing pack. I ages of rum, rice, sugar, legs of mutj ton, hams, etc., to send them to an ; exceedingly wealthy woman. The idenI tity of the mysterious Madame X. has, |in * fact, to-day bden revealed (wrote I the Paris correspondent of the “Daily 1 Telegraph” on January 30th), She is i Madame Bechoff, of the - world-famous I dressmaking firm of Bechoff David,pajlatially housed in the Place Vendome. She is credited with an income of at i least £16,000 a year, has a flat in the ! Av c nue Henri Martin, a villa at Savj igny-sur-Orjge, which attains the di- ■ mensions of a chateau, and two motoi cars. Her husband is of German na- | tionality, but was first a naturalised ; Belgian, then, some time before the iwar, French. It appears that M. Des- ! claux had some definite interest in : the firm. It is oven said that he used to act as a beater-np of clients for the famous house in salons, wh'Ch his oHi-

oial position, and the powerml patronage of M. Callainx, opened to him. In th:3 case which is to coin e before Liu-court-martial, which will be, in consideration of the high military rank of the accused —he is commandant or major—presided over by a full-fledged general, M. Desclaux will be defended by Me. Labor!. It is said that th ( . system of defence adopted by him will be tins: He will in substance vlead that in the sector cf the front under his

jurisdiction as paymaster the troops were overfed. On several occasions, therefore, he sent the surplus supplies to his wealthy friend, Madame Bechoff, in Faris, requesting her to forward them to other sections of the front, where they are more needed. The alternative method of defence which, according to the “Figaro,” is to be adopted by Madame Becboff who has been requested to hold

herself at the disposal of the atuhorities ,will bo this; M. Desclaux, who is a small eater, found the army portions too copious for hig delicate appetite, and used to send tire surplus from the rations to his friend Madame Bechoff, receiving in exchange from h e r chicken pate de foie gras and ether dainties more supportable to his feeble digestion and educated palate. It is unnecessary to underline the grotesque’ absurdity of both methods of def e iioe. The fact is that the case is extraordinary tenebrous. The affaire Desclaux is at present passionately canvassed on the boulevards. It is the first cause celebre since the war broke out, and, curiously enough, it has brought into prominence the name ■ f one cf the n-iuMpuis in the stiil mere celebrated case that immediately preceded the outbreak of hostilities.