"Miscreants"

Reports that the U. S. Treasury paid 1,250,000 francs ($50,000) to a "Paris clerk" for information he got by "violating the premises" of famed Dressmaker Paul Poiret stirred Paris editors last week to apoplectic fury. Mad as two stitches, Dressmaker Poiret showed reporters a letter he had just received from Mrs. Robert L. Dodge, on whom U. S. Customs men imposed the record penalty of all time $213,286 (TIME, May 12). Mrs. Dodge complained, said M. Poiret, that the Customs officials showed her photostatic copies of pages from the Poiret ledger, thus forcing her to agree with their view that she had bought a great many Poiret gowns she had no recollection of buying. If rich, highly strung clients cannot depend on their dressmakers to guard them from such humiliating mistakes, argued Paris editors last week; if the U. S. Treasury is actually spending millions of francs to corrupt poor Paris clerks, then the Government of France should act to protect the national interest. Roundly M. Poiret swore that there was only one means by which photostatic copies of his books could have been obtained--burglary, as bold as ever was committed. He filed formal complaint "against persons unknown" before a Judge d'Instruction, who expressed indignation, issued an order bidding the Paris police to "find and apprehend these miscreants."

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