204 THE CLASS STRUGGLE BANKRUPTCY OR REVOLUTION 205 It is hardly necessary to repeat the charges it contains against our Russian comrades. We are all familiar with them.
Hartmann, according to the terms of the indictment, is a strange individual with a mysterious past. He is described as a French Alsatian, born in 1855, who adopted French citizenship in 1874. It appears that he tried, and successfully, to make a fortune; that he laid claim to the title of Doctor, and that, in spite of his fortune, he was held in an English detention camp in 1915. Then follow various hearsay stories: that Hartmann is suspected of being the author of a leaflet entitled The General and his Lieutenant. purporting to tell the story of his relations with Gustav Hervé before the war; that the latter, during his imprisonment from 1911 1912, on account of his desperate anti militaristic campaign, received a mysterious monthly contribution of 1, 000 francs; that the mysterious donor was no other than Hartmann. It is further related that upon his release in England Hartmann crossed French territory on his way to Geneva in November 1916, that there he made the acquaintance of Guilbeaux, that he gave financial support to la Nouvelle Internationale, that he created la Reconciliation and finally that he sponsored ParisGeneva, with material help from Rosenberg, Jellnech and Moulheu. The indictment also shows that Lenin, Trotzky and Zinoviev are German agents, that Trotzky, through the intermediary comrade, Sonia, received the sum of 315, 000 marks. that Guilbeaux is a Bolshevist, having helped most of the Maximalists to escape to Switzerland. Of course, there is the story of a sealed train car, dashing through space to unfortunate Russia.
Here Guilbeaux once more figures in the indictment. The French diplomatic attaché at Berne reports that Guilbeaux blames France for his precarious financial condition, that he tried to return to Paris, with recommendations from Longuet and Merrheim; that he tried to go to Petrograd, using the names of Trotzky and Lenin as recommendations.
Had he but used the names of Gustav Hervé or Professor Milionhoff!
Then follow the sensational revelations. that a meeting of conspirators was held on the night of August 7, 1917, attended by Guilbeaux, Hartmann, Jean Debrit, Chapiron, the old anarchist Fromenten, and two Bolshevist representatives, to perfect arrangements for the overthrow of the French Republic. At this conspirators meeting the following points are alleged to have been decided upon. the seizure of the telephone and telegraph centrals; the prohibition of all newspapers except those of the cxtreme left wing; sabotage on all bourgeois and capitalist printing plants.
Before resting the case the government introduced a letter written by Guilbeaux to the reporting magistrate in May, 1918. refuse to appear before any bourgeois court of justice, of which Courts Martial are the most hideous and vilest expression.
The charges against Guilbeaux and Hartmann are summed up by the prosecution in the one word Treason.
Before the court retired the government Commissar felt obliged to clear Leon Jouhaux, the general secretary of the of all suspicion, by saying Our fellow citizen Jouliaux was a patriot. This fact alone was sufficient to make him the object of Guilbeaux attacks.
Guilbeaux and Hartmann were found guilty and were condemned to be shot at sunrise. But unfortunately these comrades were not above playing a despicable trick upon the French government. Not only did they absent themselves from court, with the entirely insufficient excuse that as Russian Bolshevists they were quite satisfied with their new fatherland; they further deplored the fact that pressing business on behalf of the Soviet government in Moscow made it impossible for them to return to France to be shot.
The following is a translation of one of the documents in the liands of the Clemenceau government that was published a week after the trial. It throws some light upon the preparations that are under way to insure the success of coming events in France.
GUILBEAUX ON THE SITUATION IN FRANCE The latest information reaching me from France, before and after the launching of the allied offensive of last July, clearly confirms the fact that a secessionist movement is taking shape in the bosom of the and especially in the Federal Committee. The situation is very promising and will permit us to intensify our revolutionary program in France, particularly in Paris, Lyon, Saint Etienne and Bourges where the militant syndicalists will answer our call. La Plebe has come into being, cleverly edited by our friend Desprès, and there is no reason to believe that the origin of the funds necessary for its weekly publication should be suspected, since our comrade publisher is known to be in comfortable finan