Red Week

The expression "I see red" was given another meaning in France. First, the French saw Red Ambassador Leonid Krassin arrive; second, they witnessed the arrival of Red Captain Jacques Sadoul; third, they saw the Reds in various parts of France chastised.

Krassin. In the station, several thousand Communists raucously greeted him. One Comrade Doriot proclaimed from the housetops: "Krassin has reached Paris; the revolution has begun." On every side, impressionistic Frenchmen shouted: "Vivent les Soviets!"

After his arrival at the Embassy, Ambassador Krassin issued a statement wherein he stated his pleasure at being in Paris. His first task would be, he said, "to establish normal relations," to solve "all questions of mutual interest." A loan would be asked for later, he inferred.

Sadoul. But the greatest news of the day, for Frenchmen at least, was the arrest of Jacques Sadoul. Once the member of a French Mission to Russia, Captain Sadoul had become so enamoured of Bolshevism that he deserted to the Bolshevik ranks. In 1919, a Paris court martial condemned him to death in absense for treason.

The return of Sadoul was attributed to a desire to cause a sensation on the day of the Bolshevik Ambassador's arrival. Had he waited a few weeks, he would have benefited from the amnesty law recently passed by the Senate (TIME, Dec. 1). But no, he came back to claim a retrial.

Red War. The simultaneous arrival of Messrs. Krassin and Sadoul had its effect. Communists everywhere became as busy as bees in an overturned hive.

In the morning following the day of his arrival, Ambassador Krassin paid his respects to Premier Herriot. One hour later, the latter's stentorian tones were heard in the Chamber of Deputies : "The Government is well aware of its duty and will take action against these foreign Communists."

The same afternoon, police started a round up of Communists. Seventy foreigners--not one of them a Russian-- were arrested and held pending deportation. Twenty police commissioners and more than 700 men were engaged in different parts of France in the search; and it was alleged that a revolutionary plot had been "nipped in the bud."