FRANCE: GEORGES BONNET & BETRAYAL of CZECHOSLOVAKIA

By the middle of 1939, it was generally known that France’s Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet, more than anyone else, had been responsible for what (in September 1938) was hailed as the guarantee of peace in our time and what was now plainly recognized as the fatal betrayal of the Czechoslovakian people.
It was Bonnet who had forced Prague to accept the Anglo-French proposal to surrender the Sudetenland and the country’s defense. It was he alone – for in the critical hours he suppressed all urgent communiqués from Prague and did not consult his colleagues!
And when dissenting colleagues, especially Paul Reynaud, protested, Bonnet did not shrink from pretending that it was Prague itself that had asked to have its hand forced in order to save its prestige before the Czech people!
It was Bonnet who, shortly after Munich, negotiated the ‘Ten Years Peace and Friendship Treaty’ with Herr von Ribbentrop, accompanying the latter to the Brown House in Paris, fully aware that it was nothing but the center of German espionage in France; having previously been forewarned about its nature by the Deuxieme Bureau!
The French Minister of Foreign Affairs acted as though he were the German Minister of Foreign Affairs: [as a matter of fact, a joke made the rounds in Paris which went, “Do you know that our Minister of Foreign Affairs is also paid by France?”] and there was good reason for this behavior.
At the end of 1939 proof of betrayal on the part of Georges Bonnet, came into the hands of the Deuxieme Bureau (the French Secret Service). This information refers back to the (in)famous Stavisky Affair in 1934. After the alleged suicide of the crooked financier, Stavisky – there was quite a scandal when it was discovered how many highly placed people had received money to “arrange” matters. There had even been a small revolution, with street fighting and uprisings in Paris. Then everything was hushed up!
One of the many higher-placed people who had received money was none other than Georges Bonnet. He received a rather large check! The history of French scandals shows that French checks have a disturbing habit of turning up years after they are cashed. “Anyway M. Bonnet’s check [and similar ones to other prominent people] came into the possession of M. Albert Dubarry, publisher of the newspaper Volonte, who in the twenties had been in the pay of the Germans. He had sold them to Berlin for a considerable sum of money. Thereafter certain Frenchmen were in the hands of Hitler”!
It was the German Gestapo agent Elisabeth Buettner (previously the private secretary of Julius Streicher, the notorious Nuremberg anti-semite and editor of Der Sturmer) who came to Paris in the spring of 1938, with photo-stats of some of the check stubs. Armed with such telling arguments she had no difficulty in obtaining the collaboration of M. & Mme. Georges Bonnet. It was outright blackmail all the time, up to the time of Buettner’s hurried departure in the wake of Premier Deladier’s sensational speech in the Chamber of Deputies on June 28, 1939!
“We are witnessing in our midst a singular act of propaganda, and it is now established beyond doubt that it emanates from abroad. The goal of these activities is to destroy the unity of France, to drive a wedge into the block of French energy in order to facilitate all kinds of sinister intrigues and maneuvers….We are absolutely convinced that an attempt is being made to imprison France within a net of intrigue and espionage…”
Daladier proceeded to explain that several arrests had been made a few hours earlier, declaring that the apparatus of Nazi and Soviet espionage within France was much more powerful than he had thought – involving not only foreigners but French citizens [note: seditious communist press activity was suppressed at beginning of the war].
Notwithstanding these revelations, Georges Bonnet was nonetheless compelled to continue his collaboration with Berlin, even after the declaration of war - tipping off personalities wanted for questioning [such as the notorious pro-nazi ‘journalist’ Fernand de Brinon].
It was easy for him to give such tips, because shortly after outbreak of war he had been transferred from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of Justice; and in his new capacity he could demand all the reports on compromised people, under pretext of preparing trials against them. He did get hold of lots of material: as a matter of fact when he left the Quai d’Orsay for the Justice Ministry, he took with him many files. Since that day, files on Otto Abetz, de Brinon, Baroness von Einem and many others have never been found.
It was only at the end of 1939 that the intelligence service found out what hold Hitler and his henchmen had over Bonnet. A French agent in Berlin was told about the check stubs involving M. Bonnet. Having outlived his usefulness to the Germans they no longer considered it necessary to protect his treacherous activities!
Why then didn’t Daladier act against Bonnet when informed by the Deuxieme Bureau as to his true colors? Because the Prime Minister thought that a country at war could not afford so ugly a scandal: to see the Minister of Justice arrested and tried as an accessory to enemy espionage.
Six months later [June 1940] saw the total defeat of the corrupt Republic and subsequent imposition of the infamous regime of Vichy - power-brokered by none other than ‘the peace projector’ - Georges Bonnet !