Part II
“Arrests of communists in Paris” 
“The Commune marked its brief existence with blood, fires and all sorts of horrors. But the Versailles government, having seized power into its own hands, tried to strengthen it with brutal executions and persecution not only of known supporters of the commune, but also of anyone who in any way attracted suspicion, which in most cases was far from well-founded.
In the very first days of the occupation of Paris by Versailles troops, arrests began to be made in large numbers; One gloomy look, a barely noticeable murmur, was enough for a person to be seized and arrested.
The zealots of peace and order even went so far as to take away everyone whose hands were stained with smoke or had a red spot on their right shoulder. The first was considered a sign that the person had set fire to houses, and the second – that he had participated in a battle, since the red spot was rubbed by the recoil of the gun when fired.
In addition, the Versailles government carried out searches and arrests based on nameless denunciations, which were written in large numbers by various scoundrels who wanted, for some personal reason, to harm this or that person. The number of such denunciations soon reached the enormous figure of 100,000, and McMahon was forced to announce that anonymous denunciations would not be accepted, and that if they were false, denunciators would be severely punished.
Finally, the very treatment of those arrested was extremely inhumane and unfair. Having captured a whole crowd, consisting of a wide variety of representatives of the Parisian population, they were driven through the streets, urging them on with rifle butts, and often with bayonets. It is a known fact that some lieutenant of the line army, in the heat of patriotic effort, ordered several people to be shot along the way because they were unable to move forward due to fatigue and exhaustion.
All the prisons, police houses and casemates of the Parisian forts were filled with prisoners. Here, in a cramped and dirty room, almost without air or light, these unfortunates languished. And, to top it all off, the Versailles government did not even take care of a speedy investigation and trial. The Parisian press and public opinion of the country demanded this in vain – the trial began only on August 7th. And, of course, as one would expect, a significant part of those arrested turned out to be completely innocent…
History provides us with many examples that civil, internecine wars are always terrible in their manner of conduct and in their consequences. But the present government of France should understand that actions justified in the time of Marius and Sulla, in rude ancient Rome, are completely worthy of reproach in the 19th century, in the most civilized state of Europe, and, consequently, of the entire globe.
(“Illustrated Newspaper”, September 23, 1871)
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