Belated Truth

TIME (Dec. 26) had reported that the French army's Chief of General Staff Georges Marie Joseph Revers had been relieved of duty because of a leak of French political secrets to IndoChina's Communists. For three weeks after the report was printed, the French government said not a word. A few French newspapers hinted at serious charges against Revers and his friend, retired General Charles Emmanuel Mast. In the cozy Chez Albert, where France's deputies dine in the shadow of the grimy Palais-Bourbon, hushed conversation turned more & more to I'affaire des generaux. Then the scandal burst into open flame, and Premier Georges Bidault hastily summoned Defense Minister Rene Pleven back from London to attend a special night cabinet session on the matter.

Last week Premier Bidault stated the facts of the case before the Assembly. "The country," he said somewhat belatedly, "has a right to know the truth."

Bidault told the Assembly that the Paris police had picked up a young Indo-Chinese after a bus fight, found in his possession a top-secret report on Indo-China written by Revers. Police traced the report back to a "double or perhaps triple" informer and onetime embezzler named Roger Peyre, who said he had gotten the report from General Mast. Revers meanwhile had admitted giving it to Mast. Peyre, said Bidault, then sold the report for 2,800,000 francs to another agent who then turned it over to the Indo-Chinese Communists. Peyre intended to use the money as a campaign fund to support the candidacy of General Mast for the post of High Commissioner to Indo-China.

The Ministry of National Defense examined the report in an effort to appraise the damage done by the leak. It concluded that the report, "while of a confidential political character, could not be considered as national defense secrets." Peyre and the other agents with whom he had dealt were released, and Peyre reportedly set sail for South America. Meanwhile, General Mast had retired, and General Revers remained "at the disposition of the Prime Minister." That was all the government knew about the case, Bidault concluded.

France's own Communists leaped enthusiastically into the ensuing fray, seizing the occasion to sling more mud at Bidault. Accusations, denials and counteraccusations were scattered like shrapnel. After three hours of stormy debate the Assembly voted to form a committee to investigate the whole affair.

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