326 



GEEMANY. 



rejected he would resign the post of Minister- 

 President of the Prussian Cabinet. 



Frontier Troubles. Before the elections, as a 

 part of the policy of alarm adopted by Prince 

 Bismarck in order to secure augmented con- 

 tingents and septennial supplies for the army, 

 a system of coercion and intimidation was in- 

 troduced into Alsace-Lorraine. Many persons 

 were arrested, and newspapers were sup- 

 pressed. When the elections gave an increased 

 majority to the Protesters, repressive measures 

 were applied with greater severity. Social and 

 musical organizations were suppressed, and 

 burgomasters were deposed. The Government 

 announced the intention of taking away all the 

 autonomous institutions that were bestowed 

 on the provinces in 18T9. On March 81, M. 

 Antoine, the most ardent of the protesting 

 delegates to the Reichstag, who had been again 

 returned from Metz with a sweeping majority, 

 was expelled from the territory of Alsace-Lor- 

 raine, and conducted across the French bound- 

 ary. Troubles on the frontier, which before 

 were frequent, chiefly on account of the prone- 

 ness of German soldiers to desert and of young 

 Alsace-Lorrainers to escape from military con- 

 scription, were now of constant occurrence. 

 The German authorities were accused in sev- 

 eral instances of violating French territory, but 

 the French Government was not disposed to 

 make a diplomatic question of the occasional 

 misbehavior of subordinate officials. The war 

 feeling that was fostered in Germany met with 

 a response from the Patriotic League, but the 

 agitation was discouraged by the French Gov- 

 ernment, which prosecuted a newspaper for 

 publishing anti-German articles. The German 

 police suspected the existence of secret socie- 

 ties in Alsace-Lorraine which not only were in 

 correspondence with Paul Deronlede's Patriotic 

 League, but which furnished the French War 

 Office with information regarding the fortifica- 

 tions and disposition of troops on the frontier. 

 Several arrests were made, and a warrant was 

 issued for the apprehension, if he appeared on 

 German soil, of M. Schnaebele, the French 

 police commissary of the railroad terminus at 

 Pagny-Sur-Moselle, who was supposed to be an 

 intermediary of the treasonable correspond- 

 ence. As soon as the German detectives were 

 in receipt of this order, they studied means to 

 carry it out. Herr Gautsch, the police com- 

 missary at Ars, on the German side, wrote to 

 Schnaebele, appointing a meeting at the bound- 

 ary line in relation to the replacing of frontier 

 posts. M. Schnaebele went to the rendezvous, 

 but did not see his German colleague, and, hav- 

 ing been warned, did not venture to cross the 

 line. On receiving a second letter, he went 

 again on April 20, and, seeing nobody, stepped 

 a few yards on the other side. A detective 

 disguised as a laborer came out of a ditch and 

 engaged in conversation, and then immediately 

 laid hold of the Frenchman, another disguised 

 policeman coming to his aid from a vineyard. 

 Schnaebele shook off his captors, and ran to 



the French side, stopping as soon as he had 

 passed the boundary pillar, and pointing to it 

 to indicate to his pursuers that he was safe; 

 but they seized him, dragged him back, bound 

 him, and took him to Metz. The high court 

 at Leipsic, which had issued the order of his 

 arrest, had an indictment against him for trea- 

 son, en the ground that he was engaged in a 

 movement in Alsace-Lorraine for the subver- 

 sion of German authority. German, and also 

 French, law sanctions the prosecution of for- 

 eigners for high treason, even though the acts 

 have been committed abroad. The French 

 and German Governments both ordered an in- 

 quiry into the circumstances of Schnaebele's 

 arrest. Two vine-dressers, who were at work 

 near the spot, swore that he was seized when 

 six or seven yards within the French bound- 

 ary. German railroad officials, who seem to 

 have witnessed only the latter part of the 

 struggle, made depositions that the whole oc- 

 currence took place on German territory. The 

 French authorities found the decoy letters in 

 Schnaebele's desk. 



Correspondence was carried on between the 

 German and French Governments, each pre- 

 senting the testimony that it had collected re- 

 garding the circumstances of the arrest, but 

 little was divulged to the public, and intense 

 excitement prevailed in France, where the 

 secrecy and delay were interpreted either as 

 a sign of war or a trick of speculating poli- 

 ticians to make money out of a financial panic. 

 In view of the contradictory evidence, the 

 German Government directed a fresh inquiry, 

 which .was completed on April 27. On the 

 following day Prince Bismarck addressed a 

 note to the French ambassador, M. Herbette, 

 affirming that the arrest in all its stages had 

 taken place on German soil, and that it had 

 been ordered on the proved guilt of espionage 

 and treasonable correspondence on the part of 

 Schnaebele, yet the Emperor would command 

 liberation, being "guided in so doing by the 

 doctrine of international law that the crossing 

 of a frontier, when done on the strength of an 

 official agreement between the functionaries of 

 neighboring states, must always be looked upon 

 as carrying with it the tacit assurance of a 

 safe-conduct." 



Treason Trials at Leipsic. The evidence on 

 which the arrest of Schnaebele was made was 

 that of a commercial agent of Strasburg, named 

 Tobias Klein, and of letters of Schnaebele found 

 in the latter's possession. Klein and Martin 

 Grebert, a manufacturer of Schiltigheim, were 

 arrested in February on suspicion of having 

 furnished Col. Vincent, the head of the French 

 bureau of military intelligence, with plans of 

 the fortifications of Strasburg and Metz, and 

 other information. Klein confessed that he 

 had acted as a spy since 1880, receiving 200 

 marks per month for his services. The letters 

 that he had from Schnaebele were written in 

 disguised terms, having the appearance of 

 correspondence on family subjects. Grebert 



