THE SHOOTING OF FRENCH OFFICERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 184, 4 August 1900, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE SHOOTING OF FRENCH OFFICERS.

Fresh details of ft startling kind were revived in Taris with regard to the VouletChanolne tragedy, enacted last year in French West Africa. They have been furnished by Sergeant Tourot, of the Marine Infantry, who has returned from a post at which' he wa s stationed, a few miles off from the place where Captains Voulet and Chanolne were shot down by their men. It will be remembered that at the time of their s death the two officers were making off 'nto the bush in open rebellion against orders from headquarters, with, it has been supposed, the mad purpose of founding an African possession of their own in the interior. Lieutenant-Colonel Klobb and a small escort went after them, and required them to give up their command into his hands. They replied through an envoy that if the Colonel approached their camp they would order their men TO SHOOT HIM DOWN. ' Colonel Klobb disregarded the threat, and us he advanced Clianoine gave the order to flre, first one volley which wounded the commanding officer and a lieutenant by his side, then a second which killed the former. Chanolne and Voulet then made off further Inland, but their own men, encouraged by the murderous example of the two officers, became mutlnous.and eventually killed their leaders. The exact circumstances of their death have now been ascertained for the first time through Sergeant Tourot. Chanolne, hearing shots, thought

AN ATTACK BY INDIGENOUS BLACKS

was about to be made on the camp, and ■went towards a corapnny of Senegalese sharpshooters to Inquire what the alarm was about. The men, without replying, fired again, this time at the Captain, who fell dead. A frightful scene then occurred, the native troops and other blacks—men and women—dragging off the body Into the bush and mutilating it savagely. Voulet, who had witnessed the fate which his confederate. Had met with, exclaimed to the men who had remained by him, "I'm done for, too," and, swallowing down a glass of absinthe.he went towards the door of his tent. The sharpshooters outside immediately fired a volley, followed by a second, and Voulet fell. His body was subjected to the same frightful treatment by the native troops »nd carriers as that of Chanolne.