GUILTY OF BLACKMAIL

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 68, 20 March 1936, Page 9

GUILTY OF BLACKMAIL

FAMOUS TENOR'S WIFE

SENTENCED BY COURT

(Received March 20, 11.40 a.m.)

VIENNA, March 19.

Carlotta, the divorced wife of Richard Tauber,.the famous tenor, was found guilty of blackmail and sentenced to two months' suspended imprisonment, conditional on her good behaviour for three years.

A Vienna message received on February 20 stated that Taubeu was present at the trial of his wife, Carlotta, for blackmail and the repayment of £7000 paid to her since 1930. According to the Public Prosecutor's indictment, the couple were married in Vienna in 1925 and divorced in Berlin in 1928, when Tauber stated that he had given his wife £9000 in alimony, a furnished flat, jewellery, and a motor-car. It is alleged that in 1930 Carlotta asked for further alimony, pointing out that a Berlin divorce was not legal in Austria, and threatening to publish her memoirs of Tauber's private life, Tauber stated that he agreed to a monthly allowance of £ 120 until 1940, conditional upon her agreement to a divorce in Austria on his request. Last year Tauber, wishing to marry again, asked Carlotta to agree to a divorce, but she refused and is alleged to have made further demands, resulting in the present action. Carlotta's counsel repudiated the charge of blackmail and affirmed that in 1930 an alimony contract was drawn up and signed in the presence of several lawyers. j

transformed during the latter discussion, but the idea behind it is still in existence. KNOWN PROPOSALS. One proposal which is known to have been mentioned is a thin line of Italian and British troops along the Rhineland frontier, Britain and Italy being the least affected Locarno Powers. Another British suggestion was that Germany should undertake not to construct fortifications. This again was intended as a temporary measure pending a general settlement.

The question of French and Belgian security was also considered in two aspects, namely, temporary and permanent. The British Government (again pending a general settlement) may give France and.Belgium more explicit assurance of its lull observance of its Locarno Pact obligations. It is even conceivable that it might agree to make operation of the Locarno guarantee automatic, which would necessitate consultations between the general staffs.