Foreign News: Caillaux Elected

In an election made possible by the resignation from the Senate of his good old friend Dr. Gigon, Finance Minister Joseph Caillaux was chosen Senator for his native Department of Sarthe by 641 votes out of a possible 739. This completes M. Caillaux’s “return to politics.” He becomes a member of that body which, in 1920, sentenced him to banishment for endangering France’s alliances.

The triumph of the new Senator was not unclouded; for shortly after the election he was informed that Mme. Caillaux, slayer* of Editor Calmette in 1914, had been severely hurt (dislocated hip and broken kneecap) when her automobile skidded into a tree on the way from Mamers, where the Caillaux estates are situate, to Le Mans, capital of the Department of Sarthe. Her first words on recovering consciousness were : “Was Joseph elected?” Apprised of the result, she uttered a cry of joy and was whisked off to a hospital, where an operation was performed. Senator-elect Caillaux rushed to his wife’s side at the first opportunity. Later, she was said to be out of immediate danger.

The significance of the election of M. Caillaux, who is not a Deputy, is that, with the fall of the Painlevé Ministry, he will not be obliged to retire from politics, as his enemies had hoped.

* Mme. Caillaux shot M. Gaston Calmette, editor of the Figaro, in his office for attacking her husband in his newspaper. Despite the fact that premeditated murder seemed established, the court before which she was tried acquitted her on the grounds that Calmette would not have died had he received proper medical attention.