THE CARTEL POLICY

Abolish Biribi!

After the abolition of the penal colony, so favorably received by public opinion, the abolition of Biribi was expected. The admirable investigation of Albert Londres could not leave room, in the minds of our leaders, for any kind of hesitation. Our distinguished colleague and friend did not put forward anything that he was not able to prove. He had at the disposal of the Minister of War facts, names, dates. The unheard-of scandals that he unleashed with a firm hand were bound to arouse the indignation of the public authorities and called for immediate sanctions. General Nollet does not seem to have thought so. He has just appointed a Commission that is charged with going to verify on the spot the allegations, however peremptory, of Albert Londres. This is truly making fun of the world.

In any case, we are wary of ministerial Commissions. We know, from all the experience of the regime, that they work in a vacuum, without hurrying, and that they achieve practically nothing. By a sort of well-established tradition, they appear as the burial procedure that allows one to get rid of embarrassing questions. Will that of Biribi constitute the happy exception to this almost invariable rule? We do not think so.

We first reproach it for its composition. It only includes senior officers and high magistrates. It is not an insult to its members to consider that they risk seeing things from a little far away, as men who are prepared neither to surprise the detail nor to grasp its scope. The investigation that they have accepted the responsibility for requires that exceptional means of investigation be used. If Albert Londres succeeded in his, it is by dint of ingenuity, skill, patience, and courage. He had to both ensure an independence of movements that General Nollet's commissioners would not have and obtain the sympathy of the disciplinarians to provoke their confidences. These unfortunates gave themselves up to the journalist after much hesitation. They would say nothing to General Michaud and his collaborators.

Moreover, the departure of the Commission was announced with great fanfare. When it arrived in Africa, the people being investigated would have been warned a long time ago. He would be shown a penal colony called "the Potemkin", a good, attractive penal colony where the prison guards were fathers to the prisoners. And Biribi would continue to dishonor us.

L-0. FROSSARD.