Gendarmes Defied

A barricade of sandbags and barbed wire was erected last week by perspiring young French Royalists outside the Paris office of their obstreperous news organ, L'Action Franc,aise. Parisians stopped to loiter, to tip one another the wink, to shrug and pass on. They knew that fiery, effervescent Royalist Editor Leon Daudet must be preparing with dramatic Daudeterie to resist arrest. A sentence of five months in jail "for defaming the police" has hung over him these two years; and only a fortnight ago he refused once more to set a time convenient to himself to serve his sentence (TIME, June 13). Therefore last week the authorities announced that they would arrest M. Daudet, that very day at 1 p. m., would remove him to jail.

Editor Daudet, who recognizes no political authority save that of the "King of France,"* immediately called out last week his "Camelots du Roi" a band of young Royalists thus derisively nicknamed "The King's Hawkers" because they have at times hawked upon the streets copies of L'Action Franc,aise. With sandbags, barbed wire, and 100 "Camelots" to defend him,. Editor Daudet felt safe in his office, announced that he would reside there indefinitely in a self-proclaimed state of siege. To reporters he cried: "My house, my stable and my inkpot are henceforth here! My Leaguers ["Camelots") will not allow me to go to prison. Let the Prosecutor General dare to try to arrest me! He is mistaken if he believes, as he says, that I will have to bear the expenses of his proceedings. I am within my right and I shall not move! I am ready for anything and will do whatever circumstances or my fancy dictate. Tell that to the Prosecutor General. . . . With me" this is a question of Honor. I owe it to the memory of my son. No one has any finer cause than mine!"

The "memory" to which M. Daudet referred was the suicide (according to the police) of his son, Phillipe, who, while riding in a taxicab, allegedly shot himself (1923). Editor Daudet has always charged that the police "murdered" his son, and for this "defamation" he was sentenced, 18 months ago, to serve five months in jail. As the hour of 1 p. m. approached last week, tout Paris kept an eager ear for news that policemen had swarmed over sandbags and barbed wire, rushed the "Camelots" and dragged a plump, irate editor to jail. Instead it was a group of Communists who first molested the Royalist premises.

The Communists, perhaps 100 strong, gathered outside the office of L'Action Franc,aise, shouting: "Down with Daudet! To jail with him!"

"Vive le Roi!" answered the young "Camelots," "Vive Daudet! Vive la France!"

Soon a Royalist-Communist free fight with canes and hurtled rocks began. Because the office of L'Action Franc,aise is near the Station St. Lazare, many an arriving tourist thought that revolution had broken out in France. At last police reserves separated the combatants--though not until some 20 civilians and 10 policemen had received major bruises. All the while Editor Daudet stood at the window of his office, cheering on the "Camelots" hurling such epithets as "Pig-men! Assassins! Red-Snouters! Bandits! Jelly-Bellies!" at the Communists.

Meanwhile M. le President Gaston Doumergue of France received hundreds of appeals to pardon M. Daudet. The government was reputedly much inclined to this step; and no attempt whatever was made by the police last week to arrest Editor Daudet, who dined sumptuously on all manner of delicacies sent him by Parisians who admire his flashing spirit, consider him at worst harmless, at best a priceless "character."

Reporters who interviewed M. Daudet some 29 hours after his arrest should have taken place found him genial but defiant.

"I will never surrender!" he cried. "To accede would be to abdicate the liberty of the pen. In submitting to unjust punishment I would consecrate iniquity. Not until I have received formal official assurances from the Government of the Republic will I leave this office!"

* There are several "pretenders," but M. Daudet bestows his loyalty on M. le Due de Guise, "successor" to the late Louis Philippe, Due d' Orleans (TIME, April 5, 1926).