As yet definite evidence has not been produced before the
Committee, M. Charles de Lesseps, the working director of the Company, and M. Quesnay de Beaurepaire, the Procureur- General, and others who know the truth, refusing to be examined ; but the Committee has primci-facie grounds for suspicion. M. Prinet, Juge d'Instruction, charged with the case, testifies that Baron Reinach certainly received £400,000 for distribution, that six hundred persons were paid, and that among them were journalists who were also Deputies. He is strongly condemned for a breach of professional etiquette, as he is forbidden to inform the public of facts coming out in any investigation ; but, of course, that only increases the general excitement. Then M. Thierree, a well- known banker doing business with stock-jobbers, testified on Wednesday that Baron Reinach had, in 1888, come to him to exchange a cheque for £135,500, drawn by the Panama Com- pany, for twenty-six cheques of his own bank. The amounts in these cheques varied from £40,000 to £200. They were all distributed, all cashed, and all endorsed with the pre- , sentees' names, which were at the disposal of any legal Court. This evidence, which is understood to be final, as regards the payment of bribes by somebody to somebody, has raised excitement to fever heat; and, whoever is Premier, the inquiry must now go forward. It seems to be believed that M. Arton, who recently fled before some charge of malversa- tion, but who is in Paris, might be persuaded to give evidence, and that the Committee will then be able, with the assistance of the careful book-keeping of Paris, to bring the receipt of bribes home to most of the guilty. Throughout, it should be observed that all witnesses aver that influential Parisian journals received money in large sums.
Previous page
