242
PARTISAN REVIEW
Pay attention,
band
of numbered ones (matricules)!
(The matricule
is the number by which each soldier in a regiment is designated.)
They have created a rubric of conformism:
The League of Yes·Men
and sometimes have a special page entitled:
The Polishing Rag.
They present innocent little news items, as:
An Unfortunate Gentle·
11UJn. -
Yesterday
at
the corner of the Rue des Louises
and
the
Impas~e
des Leopards, brigadier Reniflot of the brigade, Du Moral, noticed the
strange appearance of two individuals who were promenading peacefully
as
they
discussed aloud the rain
and
the good weather. Discreetly ap–
proaching these unknowns, brigadier Reniflot heard one of them' state:
Personally, I think .
.."
He was unable to say anyMing more. Vigoroudy
collared,
t~
dangerous character, a Mr. Fidele Balentranche, was
imme·
diately taken to the police station, where he will have leisure to reflect
on
the inconveniences that result from allowing oneself to think personally
in times like these.
Cesar Borgia (of the
Merle)
reminds those who have made their lit·
erary fortunes by their struggle against the war, of the meetings, discus·
sions, memories, common to both. He writes to Giraudoux:
"Our" Girau–
doux would never have authorized the fantasies of Anastasie (the censor).
"Our"- Giraudoux, writer and free
11UJn,
would never have accepted the
responsibiilty for such a spiritual servitude, such a domestication oj
thought. "Our" Giraudoux, author of "L'lntermezzo" would never have
become an accomplice,
by
his silence, to the fate of one of his spiritual
brothers, lean Giano.
It
is known that Jean Giono, imprisoned for expressing anti·war
views, has been freed, thanks to the effort of solidarity of American intel·
lectuals, as expressed in the protests of the League for Cultural Freedom
and Socialism and of the Committee for Cultural Freedom. But as the
Canard
has written in its Official Communique:
Home Front: The govern·
ment has again taken a few prisoners.
..•
In order to understand the power of what the government calls the
"subversive spirit," it is enough to follow the development of the repres·
sive apparatus: In November a decree decided on deportation without
trial of people endangering national defense, or public safety, on a simple
decision of a judge. Public offices were purely and simply revoked by
suppressing disciplinary guarantees established since 1905. That was not
enough. On the 25th of January a new stage was added to the structure of
coercion. They created the famous violation of the law, the "subjective
secret denunciation," which aroused considerable feeling even in conserva·
tive circles. This seeks to repress "seditious proposals of a purely subjec.
tive nature which, without constituting the objective declaration 1>f a defi·
nite act, neither presenting in themselves nor by themselves alone the
juridical character of an act harmful to national defense, are none the less
capable of exerting on the morale of the people or the army a fatal
. influence."
So, this is what we have come to. This is what the military dictatorship
