RELEASE ORDERED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVII, Issue 10826, 22 January 1927, Page 5

RELEASE ORDERED.

ASSAILANT OF MUSSOLINI. MISS GIBSON GOES TO FRIENDS. ("Press Association—Copyright.) - ROME, January 20. The Italian Government has decided to drop the prosecution against Miss Violet Gibson for firing at Mussolini, as she was not responsible for her actions. Moreover, the authorities are desirous of avoiding prosecuting the Irishwoman, who will be banded over to the care of her family. While Mussolini was leaving the International Congress of Suergery at Romo on April 7, an elderly Irishwoman, Miss Violet Albina Gibson, tired a revolver almost point-blank at him, wounding hint slightly in the nose. .' Mussolini was quite calm, and immediately gave directions, with a view to preventing a disturbance, Ibe woman was with difficulty rescued from the incensed crowd and taken to prison. Miss Gibson, who was 50 years ol age, was a central figure in a Holy Year drama at Rome in February, 1925. She is a devout Catholic. t She attended ecclesiastical ceremonies and' later, while under the influence of a fit of religious exhaustion, shot herself in the chest in a bedroom in a private j hotel. Her father was the’ first Lord Ashbourne, prominent in Irish politics, and Lord 1 Chancellor' of Jreiaml. t / for eighteen months. After her attempted suicide she* was disclv»«‘/-cd from the hospital under the caio, of her friends. She had no politic.*! sympathies in any direction, but ws moody mid deeply religious. Her ■ mother died a fortnight before the attempt on the Dictator’s life.