THE FRENCH SCANDAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 52, 29 December 1904, Page 17

THE FRENCH SCANDAL.

fOME years ago some Grand or Upright-Grand or Semi-Grand of an Auckland lodge hackc'd at the Church because she caiVnot brLng herself to bestow her benisdn on Freemasonry any more than she did or does on the Carbonari, tohe Mafia, the Mala Vita, the International, the Invincibles, or a,ny other of tihe secret, oath-bound associations that are burrowing lfke rats in cellars or flitting like bats in giaomy caves beneath the surface of social and political life throughout the world. The Church's opposition to dark-lantern aSs'ociatidns is well known. Freemasonry in particular has been repeatedly condemned by Popes. This coo'dem'natkm is bas^d Dartly on general Cfhrrsitian principles, partly ujpon a long and intimate kmowled-ge of the practices of Wie brotherhood qi(Ott as is comparatively inftdceasiibt^ to tihe great body of Uho sank la T «d file of its members. Briefly, the Qfturctfi condemns the Society (1) bacause of its secrecy ; (2) beqajuse of the ujtil awful oaths taken by its members; (3) bocajiQsß of it's peculiar religions tenets ; and (4) because of the atropibus war wihiah ihe greiat b,ody of the fratepmity have waged and are wa'gimg against religion over widely separated portions of the earth.. • T\he Grand Orient in France, for instance, boastsawl it is no idle or empty boast— that it is at the head of tihe fierce persecution tjhat has so long been ragrhg in 1 ISiat unhappy and grievously miiisgovemeri land. A few

weeks ago the French Chamber of Deputies rang with the revelations of lodge espionage arid tyranfty which were made before it by a prominent Nationalist member, M. Giuyot de Villeneuve. Tihe revelations prove wihat a mjenace Freemasonry is to the State as well as to the Cftuirah, and they shook the Oharruber to siuch Runpose tihat tffie Government was sa.ved from disaster anly by the narrow majority of four votes. Stated in Summary terms, the facts, which we glean from Home and foreign pipers, run as follow : A number of leadLug Freemasons decided to secure for the Cxaft the control of appointments in the army, and they have done tihis in a way so thorough-going as Ijo t<hyreaten the very organisation of France's last resort— her rmiltfiary forces. ' The idea,' says the ' Glasgow Observer ' of November 5, • originated with Commandant Pasquier, Governor of the Chenjhe-Mkii Military Prison, who has great influence at tihe War Office, and who took into his confidence the leadens of the French Masbnic organisation, the " Grand Orient de France." A confidential circular was issued by the Grand Orient to all the Freemason officers artd non-commissioned officers requesting tihern tio obtain arid semd Ho the Mas-onic he«vd Quarters ocmfldential inform\atian upon tihe colleagues whicSh the oha^nce of garrison life brought into contact with them ; the information w)ante|d was set forth in the following qiuestti'ons :—

' U Families of the father and of the m)other of the ouicer. ' 2. Families of the father arid of the mother of the officer s wife. '3. The schools *and colleges in which tihe officer aid his wife have been educated. '4. T/he ckibs or associations or societies of which tiney are or< have been members. ' 5. Their religiauß views and practices. ' ft. The stc'hcfols to which they sdnd Uhe cjiildren. ( 7, Their social standing and relations. 8. The shootfng or husntftig parties to which ttiey are generally ftwitod. * ' 9. Are they anti-semites ? ' *

T.o theft credit , the souls of a few officers who are leading members of IJhe fraternity revolted against this organised system of espionage. The remainder swallowed their scrfuples, if they had alny, artd entered with zeal \(,pon a task that is so degrading to tihe character of anyone who claims to be • an officer and a gemtlemain.' Before last New Year's Day secret reports were sejnt in affecting 12,000 officers. These were sorted and pigelon-hoIKW by M. Vadecarfl, Goineßal Secretary of the Grand Orient, and by him communicated to the War Office, wiflh Uhe knowledge and approval of the Masonic Gdneral Andre, the Minister 'of War. This pliant tool of the dark-lanlefnists appointed three officers— Colonel Jaccjuot, Commandant Bernard, and Captain Mollin— to daal with the steady stream of rejpoTts reaching the War Office through tihe Masonic organisation. Molltn was tihe official spokesman of the wretched triumvirate and, says our Glasgow contemporary, he ' never failed to take tihe opinion of <* dear bnot'her Vadecard " Whenever any /promotions were to be made or honors given, or to write informing him that all tihe names to which tihe Guiand Oridnt objected were struck off, although the officers in question wei^e otherwise Qualified for promotion, a^nd Dhat those whom tthey recommended were pnonjoted or dedorate.d, although their time had not yet quite arrived.' Relentless tyrartny was exercised in persiequting anld barring the promotion of officers who dared to practise their religion, or to send their children to Catholic schools, or who were suspected of being well disposed towards Catholic institutions, or whose relatives or wives' relatives, manifested any love ior the Old Fatth that was the pride of France in the "dayis when s;he was trtily great. Here are two average sain|ples of tihe manner in which I*his itfidergrtound Maislo.nic sfpying is mjade to opc&ate against officers siuspccteld of a leaning towards t*he Caflholic iaiih :—

c Remy,. commander of artillery at headquarters staff of the 20t?h cortys, has two da'ughtecs in a religious Imsititution. His wife takes part in all tjie parish

wfcfcjc of Uhe prarifth prie&t of Saint Sebastian, wW6 tor- * metly dirept<*i tihe "ex-journal" the "Opoix d« l'Eta-t " ' General de la Begassiere, formerly a ttommantier-in-cliiief of artillery, now at Tunis, is am intimate friend of the Bishop of Nancy.' Repprta wore e^en sfnt in by the Maslotoic s«ies rega,r)di'ng ithe newspapers read by feU'ow-offipers a,nd e<very enaouragement was given by the Grand Orient anJd the War Office for the play of personal jealo,usy ajn,d religious and political hate in the army

For two deadly hours M. de Villqncu\e lashed tihe Grand Orient and the War Office with the body of relantless oiiginal documents, co\eiing tiie past £0111 years, which he held in his hands. M. Combes essayed to create a diversion artd shieSd his oollc'a/fjiie. It was in vain. After a long debate the Chamber of Deputies, by 232 to 278, voted a denunciation of the War Office metjhods, if true as revealed by M. de Villeneiuve. A clause censuring the espionage and informing was passed unanimously and by acclamation. A, motion expressing confidence in the Minister of War was squeezed thrqugji by the narrow majority of four, which is practically a vote of censure on General Andre. Since then events have been moving pretty rapidly. Three Parisian papers have been publishing facsimiles of FreemascinWar Office documents ; the authenticity of these documents and those read by M. de Villeneiuve axe declared bhortougn ly a-utlhentic ; Captain Mollm has resigned his position at tfie War Office and retired from the army ; and a few days later a fire ' broke out ' im General Andre's office, and t,he ' Matin ' (an anti-clerical organ) not unnaturally infers that ' the compromising dossiers arvd registers containing the detectiive notes an gonerals, colonels, amd others were be-mg burned.' The Grahd Oriont has essayed a defence of its infamy. Brother Vadecard has issued a summons against M. /de Villeneruve ' for complicity in the theft of documents from his office.' Vadecar'd's assistant secretary— tine ojily otjher pers'Qn besides r adceard wlio had ajcces,s to the Hooumente—suddenly bolted wliem iftie tuoiuble axose. Mdc Villene<u,ve roundly daclarea that he would compel General Andre to resigm, and that he 'has up his sleene documents still more sensational than those read out by him in the Chamber of Deputies.' And, sjure eWe/Ugh, Anidire did resign ! He was jettisoned by Combes, who (as & Lonld'dn contemporary remarks) ' naUirally witdied to reliove his Cabinet of the weight of wnpDplillarity wh.Lc\h mtust accrue to it from tfhe rovelations which hajd bee,n maide concerninc; the a,dministratilon of the War Office.' The whole case /aut-Dreyfiuses the DreySus oabe. But, strange to say, New Zealand papers, which sounded the loud timbrel s.o noisily over the Jewish oalptaJn and the Nancy nuns, are, tvhus far, as silent as tjhe grave over the worst conspiracy, the gravest public scandal that has tiakon place in European politics for rniore than a generation.