MALVY, LOUIS JEAN (1875— ), French Radical politician, was born at Figeac on Dec. 1, 1875. In 1906 he entered the Chamber as a Socialist-Radical and was an under secretary in the Monis and Caillaux cabinets (1911), minister of commerce and postal services under Doumergue (Dec. 1913) and minister of the interior in the Viviani ministry (June 1914). He retained this post under Briand and Ribot. On July 22, 1917, Clemenceau charged him with lax administration in dealing with defeatists and agitators, and he resigned on Aug. 31. His resigna tion brought about the fall of the Ribot cabinet. In October Leon Daudet brought against him a general accusation of treason. A commission, appointed at Malvy's own suggestion, decided on behalf of the Chamber that the Senate, sitting as a high court, should pronounce judgment on all the stated charges. On Aug. 6, 1918, the high court acquitted Malvy of the charge of treason, but found him guilty of forfaiture, i.e., culpable negligence, in the performance of his duties as minister of the interior from 1914-17, and sentenced him to banishment for five years, which he passed in Spain. In 1924 he was re-elected to the Chamber, he repre
sented France at the Morocco negotiations which arranged for joint action against Abdel Krim, and in October of the same year became president of the finance commission of the Chamber. Malvy again became minister of the interior in the Briand cabinet of March 1926, but his appointment roused old and bitter controversies and after a stormy sitting in which he was violently attacked he fainted in the Chamber. The deputies then voted in support of the Government, ashamed of their violence. But Malvy resigned on the ground that his presence in the cabinet deprived it support. In June 1928 he was elected chairman of the finance committee of the Chamber.