Why France Wants to Abolish Its
"Land ofitn. Living
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One-fourth of them probably will be
dead within six months. . . . French
criminals about to emba k for the
penal colony in Guiana.
EDITOR S NOTE: This is the first
of a series of six articles dealing with
the history of, and conditions in, the
famous French penal colony in Gui
ana. The series is especially timely
in view of Premier Blum’s present
efforts to abolish the colony.
PARIS.
IGHT HUNDRED men were spared
a one-way passage to France’s
official limbo last autum 1. when
the government of Leon Blum
E
canceled the annual shipment of convicts
to Cayenne
The prisoners were ready. “La Mar
timere.” the notorious prison-ship, was in
harbor at the lie de Re. Steam was up
It was circulating not only in the engines,
but also in the gruesome pipes a >out the
prisoners’ cages—ready to scald any in
surrection into quietude
Down in Guiana all was ready too —the
heat, the fever, the stenches, the jungle
Orders came through to halt tiie expe
dition The People’s Front government
was the first in France whose gorge had
risen effectively against the abominable
penal system to which that oatch of
prisoners was doomed The humanitarian
ain of the Blum cabinet prevailed.
Late in December, just before Parle
ment adjourned, a law abolishing the
“bagne”—the penal colony—was offered
the Chamber It provided for the distri
bution of criminals eligible for deporta
tion among the prisons of France, and
dealt with other details of the nation’s
criminal regime. The law was tabled
Too many other more pressing legislative
problems had to be considered. There
the matter rested.
Does this mean the end of the penal
institution which has done so much to
discredit French justice in the eyes of
the world? Certainly, if the Blum gov
ernment has anything to do with it. Less
certainly, if Blum should fall. His suc
cessor may not be so sympathetic to the
fate of a mere 5000 or so specimens of
the worst elements of the land The
“bagne” has lasted, in its present form
since the 1850 s. Maybe it will just keep
on.
The idea of sending criminals to rot
in a prison colony in Guiana began
with Louis XV —and Premier Leon
Blum will end it if he has his way
IF that should be so, France will con
-1 tinue to be the only modern top-flight
nation which continues the practice of
deportation for its criminals in general
Czarist Russia used Siberia. Britain once
—years ago—used the American conti
nent and then Australia. Portugal re
cently sent her convicts to Angola. The
government of India exported undesir
able natives to the Andaman Islands
Stalwart Signor Mussolini still sends po
litical enemies to the Lipari Islands But
generally the principle of deportation of
ordinary criminals is discredited, excepi
in France.
The French “bagne” is unique in mod
ern penal procedure. Unique in function
unique in horror, unique in bungled pur
pose, unique in depravity It has no
merits, and all the vices Down there, on
that torrid, sickly, rain-drenched coast,
they call it the “slow guillotine.”
The brilliant notion of sending crim
inals to rot in the swamps and jungles ol
Guiana originated in the time of Louis
XV Maybe it was an idea of that gentle
man himself, he who was called, for nc
special reason that historians remember
“The Well Beloved.”
It was in 1763 that the “most evil ele
ments of Paris” were first shipped out ol
France for Cayenne. In the new land, it
was fondly hoped, they would not only
cease from bothering civilized people like
the Parisians, but would also develop
great wealth for the mother country
through exploiting the riches of that
newly-discovered region which might
turn into an El Dorado, if it wasn’t that
already.
There were 14,000 thugs, bandits, and
killers in the original shipments. But the
plan failed disastrously They all died in
six months or so. Fever, plague, snakes,
wild beasts, savages, bad or too little
food, the general incapacity of the white
man to adjust himself to primitive life
on the knife-edge of the Equator, de
stroyed them, as their successors die to
I M 7
Napoleon 111 and Eugenie. He revived the institution in the 1850 s.
day.
The “Well Beloved,” once he had an
idea, hated to give it up. Why be a king,
if you can’t be right, right or wrong? So
he tried it again in 1766. The results
were identical.
Ideas die slowly in France. Today the
notion behind the Guiana penal colony is
the same that motivated King Louis XV
It to get rid of a lot of disagreeable
people, and at the same time produce
great wealth for the mother country.
TheTrutfi j
"Devil's Island" »> » jaayj* w
the popular mind, with cppressio
whole. French penal system whi<
Guiana) six miles away.
Devil’s Island is one of thre
Safety) which cluster together o
colony and has been r•* #ed so
year confinement there cTCapt.
which he was later acquj!!«4 A
The World War crammed it.
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TPHE first part of the notion might be
right, except that in practice it
gerates. A man sentenced to five years
by a jury for a comparatively unimpor
tant crime is just as likely to die m
Guiana, just as unlikely ever to return,
as the most hardened lifer.
As far as the second part of the notion
is concerned, Guiana has never been
profitable for France. The mother coun
try, instead, is paying out, annually, a
good many million francs for the sake of