Foreign News: The Impostor

Two weeks ago 79-year-old Speaker Edouard Herriot heaved himself up from his chair overlooking France's Assembly to announce that one of its members, Jacques Ducreux, 41, had been killed in an auto smashup. At once the other deputies stood up, according to custom, to wait for the expected eulogy. They knew this one would probably take time: after all, Monsieur Ducreux was a member of the executive committee of Herriot's own Radical Socialist Party. Herriot started off in style: he limned the pastoral beauties of the Vosges countryside where Ducreux came from, and recalled its people's heroism during the Franco-Prussian War....

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!