CONTINENTAL ITEMS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 215, 7 September 1912, Page 17

CONTINENTAL ITEMS.

POLICE AND STRIKERS FIGHT. A battle between the police and a party of strikers took place on July 13 at the close of a meeting of sc"ors and dockers at the Labour Exchange Si Marseilles. The; police attempted to disperse a crowd »f strikers who had just left the building, and the men took refnge in. a cafe. In order to clear the premises the police smashed the windows and entered the bar. Immediately afterwards ■the report of a revolver was heard, and one of the poliC2 officers fell to the ground wounded. A desperate hand-Uvhand straggle followed, revolvers were brought into play by both parties, at least a hundred shots being exchanged and thirty policemen and strikers seriously wounded.

c A MURDER MYSTERY, ■A new and barbarous form of murder was discovered by a party of bathers at Savona, Italy, who chanced to see the body of a man tied to a ■wheelbarrow at the bottom of the son In 20ft of water. The police ■were promptly informed, trot so far they (have found m> clue to the Identity either of the victim or Mβ murderers. Xot only had all papers and murks been removed from the clothing, but a dynamite cartridge had been exploded In the water where the body r.ank. If the object was to blow the corpse to atoms, and so remove every trace of their crimo, the murderers failed completely, but the explosion had the effect of littering the surface of toe water with fish for many hundreds of yards around. The police attribute the crime to revenge. No witnesses have yet came forward, though, the crime toes carried out close to the Custom, house, and most have occupied a considerable time.

REGICIDE PXOT. The Belgrade police (says an Exchange Telegraph Company's message) have succeeded in discovering a plot against the life of the King of Berria. The attempt was to be made at the time of his leaving for the thermal station of Kowilgaz.

The man selected to commit the assassination, whose name Iβ Olofrevttecn, has been arrested at the railway station at Cettinje, Montenegro, at the telegraphic request of the Belgrade police. A loaded revolver and a letter of instructions for the commission of the crime were found in his possession. A search. Iβ being made for his accomplices.

It was at Belgrade that the most dramatic regicide plot of modern times -was carried out, when King Alexander and Qoeen Draga were assassinated In a most coldblooded manner. FIGHT WITH AS OCTOPUS. An amazing etory, wlhidi might have come i'rom the pen of Jules Verne, Is reported from Toulon, -where a diver has- had a fight, which, nearly proved fatal, with a •giant octopus. While Direr Ledu was under -water In the floating dock of. the arsenal lie suddenly saw the approach, of a marine monster. Ie a moment its long tentacles were wound aibouit Mm, but not before he managed to give the signal to be raised to the surface. He was lifted on to a float •unconscious, and the tentacles of the octopus had to be cut from the man's body, the monster refusing to abandon its prey. When measured, the creature's tentacles were found to be 33ft long. Describing flhe adventure, Ledn said: "I went down without my dagger because I felt safe in the floating dock. I had been under water 15 minutes iwhen 1 noticed an unusual movement, and saw with horror that I had to deal •with, a giant devil-fish. ■It immediately closed upon mc, ■winding Its tentacles aronnd mc. In. a moment I was helpless, Utrt before I lost the use of my arms I polled the alarm signal violently. IThen I lost consciousness. Wijen I recovered I -was on the float with, my com» rades about mc. They had killed: the monster, which nad refused to let go, and was dragged into the float -wtQt mc. They bad a lons fight before they mssteredrithe-crea* ture." ' • ' •■% EPIDEMIC OF SUICIDE, | Vienna's unenviable iiotuitety for somber of euicWes appears to be etrared 'by the Austrian army, in w&fcit more snictdcvAra recorded annually than, inveujr Oder armj; of Europe.

As regards the-ordinary eaiclde statistics, the .proportion in *lie cony Is sixteen **■"»*) greater than that for the wi»le cuuuLry. In the last decade Chore 'were 2JS2& sncides, and 450 attempted eaichles o£ officers and men. The TTurrtwp ««<i™ni»q the -unfortunate victims could cnOy 3be ascertained In about ihatf the case, bat investigation proved that in the majority «I In* stances it was the test of jnnrtelnnent.

The next alleged cause "was kn&eßatoi, then dislike of mHitsry cctrtce,; «mi JUSHJS ill-treatment. ■ - ■ ■~•■»

These figures ere tie Jncea xeOßZfcdJle beams** as a cnle the auHOa is by no means hatHy treated in camperkKak with the sctbfiets of some other coontxfee; V I IfTiACrTi ** M'U'tlEi. A melancholy story; '■■«■■ "*"g Om assassination of a 'beantttnt yoaag nwnaa by lier mother was itoM to tile Jury at 'Rouen on July Slti, and late In €be cwcning the murderess was <"!<»■»■«i to deaUu

The victim, 'Made Gautkier, aged was insured for £200, and it sow to obtain the insurance money that iher mo&ber, a widow of forty-one, tiito kept a smalt grocer's store at Handles, strangled; her. and then placed One corpse in as ooQioraa in a ilmngftig position, a* it j&Bzte> bad 'Committed suicide. Throughout the (trial •fine viHtum maintained that she -was jimrtymt, bat the ertdence 'was overw&etaninjj. The two little brothers of the murdered village belle testified against their motlrer, and related (bow, during the night of the crime, they heard their sister repeatedly call out, "Mamma, mind, you are strangling mc."

When the body was discovered- hanging to a uall Mme. Gaudier erptemed that her daughter had committed suicide, and that she had been very melancholy lor some time. This was proved to be uulrw, (Tor the girl ivae to tie merited In September, and had told all her friends JeyfnUy at iier betrothal.

After she was sentenced Mme. Gatri&ier retained that imperturbable calm which, she bad manifested ttawrcgftiont the triaL

While Mme. 0*1101167*8 trial was proceeding at Booen •Hie imjiiueu of the Allier Department iwere considering 12ie case of ft ma who murdered his father. They were In a lenient mood, and the parricide wad sentenced to only one year's Imprisonment Yet the drcmnstsnees at Che crime were I appalling.

Xjouls Andatr, ft youth <of nixidceny wimp trying to break open the desk In wiiiclt bla J father kept Iris eaTlngs, when M, AneWr, •en., nnexpectedly arrired «nd centjit Wβ eon by «he collar. Titer atnwcrled, and *• free thnself the eon eetod • rerolrer-end. shot bis father ««uL