FRENCH PLOTTING

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 39, 25 November 1937, Page 5

FRENCH PLOTTING

EXTENT OF THE CONSPIRACY. PREPARING FOR CIVIL WAR. INDUSTRIALISTS IMPLICATED. (United Press Association—Copyright.) PARIS, November 24. The Minister for the Interior (M. Max Dormoy) lias issued a statement on the Cagoulards’ plot, as follows: “Searches revealed plans to attack Ministries, the wholesale importation of arms and also material intended fol’ their production, false identity papers, and arms transport permits. The police found papers stolen from the military bureaux from which the plotters learned the quantity of materials in the possession of the regular army units and the names of' commanding officers. “The Cagoulards had a list of Paris houses with double entrances, a precise plan of the Paris sewers tracing routes leading to the Chamber of Deputies, maps tracing lines leading to the homes of Socialist deputies and the offices of Left Wing newspapers. The police found facsimile signatures of certain Ministers and deputies, who would have been arrested after the signal for the uprising. The Cagoulards planned to seize arsenals and municipal ’buses for conversion into armoured cars. “The preparations were broken up, thanks to the vigilance of the Government. Republican institutions have nothing to fear from these Fascist enterprises. The guilty will be severely punished. We assure French democracy that any criminal action against the Republic can be crushed.” The police raided chateaux, including that of the late “Scent King,” M. Coty, once owned by Madame Dubarry, on top of a strategic hill dominating Paris. It contained a mysterious underground fortress, a network of concreted, bomb-proof passages, vaults, and a telephone exchange. The electrical machinery was built by foreign workmen, who were regularly replaced every fortnight. Five more Cagoulards have been arrested in Paris. The police net dragged in an organisation of 2000 conspirators. at Toulouse, allegedly badked by industrialists. Arms and concrete trenches were discovered. Cagoulard plans were found in the flat of Eugene de Lecle, director and consulting engineer of the Penlioet Dockyards Company, builders of the liner Normandie, who is at present visiting Italy. His brother Henri has been arrested at Nice. PRETENDER’S SON IN BELGIUM. BRUSSELS; November 23. The Comte de Paris, son of the Pretender to the French Throne, the Due de Guise, arrived by air from Switzerland', from where lie was expelled yesterday. He refused to make a. statement. The Comte had arrived in Switzerland last Friday, and began receiving Swiss friends and French Royalists. When informed that he intended to give to the press a statement from his father, the Swiss authorities asked him and his suite to leave the country. This was stated to be a precautionary measure, necessitated by the political situation in France.