THE
TELEGRAPH:
THURSDAY
FEBRUARY
Napoleon's Letters
BOUGHT BY U.S. SYNDICATE
EXCLUSIVE
RIGHTS
Paris, Fob. 5. Napoleon's hitherto unpublished Jetters to Empress Marie Loules
over the year 1810 to 1814.
"It was particularly happy this to be able to return to the national patrimony these letters which constitute a historie docu ment of arcoptional valile and which at the same time throw, a now light on the psychology of the emperor In the last stages of his 'career,"
BOTEZ BLANK IN HISTORY:
"The InteTM Krederick Masson, one of the greatest Napoleonie authorl. ties, in the introduction to his work on, Marlo Louise, lamented the fact that so little was, known' regarding the personal relations between Napoleon and Marie.
wrote.
+
"I have filled as well as I could have been sold to the United Fe-but how badly-that terrible ture Syndicate, the French govern-blank (in Napoleon's years) which ment anndanood.
The Ministry of Education, which probably never will be filled," he recently acquired title to the absorb ing and romantic documents, award- ed exclusive publication rights to the American syndicats after spirited bidding by newspapers, magazines and publishers through out the world.
Mr. Andra Mallarme, Minister of Education, announced completion of the negotiations on behalf of the Bibliotheque Nationale, which is the official custodian of the treasure,
Meanwhile, the greatest living Napoleonic authorities in France, working feverishly to decipher the Corsican's script-written from horseback on hattlefields, from head- quarters and bivouace stretching from Parls to Moscow-ngroed in declaring the collection the greatest Napoleonie find in modern history, The government's announcement Bald
The latters acquired by the Bibliotheque now fill that gap.
The name of the seller of the letters is still a carefully guarded secrot, which was one of the stipulations of sale. But It Is understood the letters had long been in the keeping of a noble family, descendants of one of the Napoleonic familles, in Vienna.
now
Bibliotheque officials are busy deciphering and transcribing the letters, many of which, owing! to Napoleon's excessively bad hand writing, are legible to laymen.
The United Feature syndicate publication of the letters will be accompanied by a running.com-: mentary by a well-known Napo- leanic authority to be selected by the Bibliotheque interpreting the the letters and significance of supplying the historical back- ground of events to which the writer alludes.
The
Bibliotheque Nationale authorises the announcement that the United Feature Syndicate has acquired exclusively all rights of
Interpreted in the light of the reproduction and translation for all fast moving and dramatic politica! countries excepting France of the romance surrounding the most letters of Napoleon 1 to Mario magnetic figure in history, the Louise which were recently pur-letters form a living picture of the chased by the Bibliotheque Nation great days from 1810, when the
The announcement marked the conclusion of two weeks of lively competition among prospective pur chasers during which Bibliothèque officials were bombarded with bids by cable, telegraph and transatlantic telephone, for publication rights to one of the most important sets of historical
documents hitherto un published, ever acquired by any government.
FRENCH RIGHTS
عية المتاحة
When the main body of British troops nesigned to assist in the International army to police the ched Into Saarbruckan, the Hitierile fuamings of Sear basin during the pleblecite on January 13 mar
The Tommies are pictured above marching down the area's capital was immediately apparent to all.
the main street of the city amid a profuse display of Nasi swastika flugs.
The redolent dust
is a of amazement,
Emperor was an imituous lever to preserve them for France, the and odour of battle, writen in the or child-like wonder at the splen-
dreams, in drab exile.
GLIMPSE OF SOUL
fallen into the
chase on behalf of the national flush of victory or the despondency dors of the vanquished Moscow, a library, at price of £15,000. of defeat, carry the Emperor along Moscow lighted by the flames of a that hour, The entire correspondence was the triumphant road to Moscow holocaust. Yet in The letters are intimate insights then transferred to the national and back again from the calvary Napoleon himself appeared not to Into Napoleon's soul. They afford library, and favoured Napoleonic that proved the war-god only know that the rocket had reached
of
human, petty,
descending. The long, painful glimpses "family" life, and flashes of the experts were given their firat op-human-and that he could be de- its zenith and that it was now
portunity to decipher the history- fented.
There is a spirit of exultation march of retreat and bitter defeat, con-making documenta. One of the overwhelming genius of a fident conqueror. They were writ-letters-n fatal note that had in the march of the Grand Army a retreat dictated by the most ten from places where, to the
hands of
the over the Russian steppes-a series powerful enemy the Emperor ever thunder of his artillery, he wrote emperor's enemies may have been of brisk, military staccato notes of encountered, an enemy which was "I not the Rusalan troops but the history in staggering characters, the direct cause of the Bonapartist which the tenor always was:
the enemy. and yet found time to long for the disaster-had been known to his- defeated fireside and "a kiss from my son," torians. But even
Masson, gen-enemy lost thousands the young King of Rome.
erally regarded as the greatest tured 20 pieces of artillery. Discovery of the collection pro-authority on the Little Corporal's} == vided another romance for Napo- domestic life. believed only one Iconie scholars. Their very axis- letter from Napoleon to his new tence had been kept a close secret empress, and seven from Marle by a proud Hapsburg house, des-Louise to him, existed. conded from the unhappy Marie Louise, and historians never aus.. pected they might be found.
* FOUR YEARS
Under the contract, while United Feature Syndicate has the sole rights outside France, rights within Franco are retained by the Biblio- theque Nationale which itself will arrange publication in this country with the forthcoming exhibition of the letters.
Negotiations were conducted in a lofty oak panelled administration office of the Bibliotheque's stately three century old home in the Rus
The lotters form a consecutive Itichelieu under the direct super- On December 17 of last year, vision of the Minister of Education, 120 years after the last of them history from 1810 to late in 1814. M. Audre Mallarme, by M. Julien was rushed across the continent by The first group are self-revealing. Cain, Administrator General of the sweating postillon and dusty court. They give a picture of the man Bibliotheque, asalsted by M. Emile fer, they appeared mysteriously at who was regarded as "a parvenue Leroy, Secretary
General. The Sotheby's grent auction house In Emperor," "a Corsican Upstart." United Feature Syndicate was re- London. The Austrian Archduke usurper of the throne of France." presented by Mr. E. L Keen, vice whose library contained the guard even "the monster of Europe, try- president and general European ed correspondence needed cash ing to win the affections of a mannger of the United Press.
and decided to dispose of them. young girl who had been brought After signing the contract M.
But he refused to reveal to the up to regard him as a menace to Ancestral Cafn anld:
peace and to her own "In-deciding recently world his name. to purchase at the Bothey sale in
News of the discovery, relayed throne.
The second group. showing London,tlicse 318 letters the French government sought to demonstrate to the French academy, brought
Immediate action by Premier Napoléon the demonstrative, af the importance it attached to tha Flandin, Edouard Herrict, Andre fectionate, Impetuous lover, were correspondence, which
tour of extended
Mallarma and other high govern- written during a ment officials. Without hesitation, Netherlands.
tho
the soundless, white and cold death of
I
сара
Russia's snows, comes next in the "series of letters-United Press.
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The wedding of Lord Hawart, Lord Chief Justion of England, and Miss Jenn Stewart, a cousin of Sir William Peat, took place in the little church at Totteridze, Harta, England. Lord and Lady Hewart-word photographed as they left the church after their
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Maria Rasputin, daughter of the "Mad Monk of Russia" is `pia- tured in costume na a tizer tamer atike World's Fair Circus in. London". The costume · fs" the 'samo' that she wore before fleeing. from the Bolsheviks. Her father, before his death wielded wa un- “canny influènes over the Car and This family
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