TO ABDUCT THE CHANCELLOR

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 91, 17 April 1913, Page 8

TO ABDUCT THE CHANCELLOR

AN AHA ZING " PHOT." ; .THE TERRIBLE SUFFRAGETTE-. " AGAIN. : •"* Particulars of an alleged plot to kidnap _\lr. Lloyd George are given in the " Weekly Dispatch." According to this the 'Chancellor was to be. seizied and gagged on the golf course and conveyed in a fast car to an isolated house in Hampshire, where he was to" be imprisoned, and forcibly fed in .the larder of the empty house, which had been -rented for the purpose. ; There'were, it i 3 stated, five persons in the conspiracy—one woman ahd four men—and .one day the plot came near ■•;_- -to being successful. . _, "But, as fate would have it, a delay took place in fitting the car with electric ligiht- switches, which had been deemed advisable, so that on a certain Saturday the car was still to come. " That very ,«day Mr. Lloyd George went down to Walton, and for nearly twenty minutes was alone on the- links saJve for a couple of men in tourist suits of an American cut, and a young couple apparently out for golfing. These were four of the. conspirators. "There were some ten minutes of this time when a determined quartet—and that they were determined enough niay >be gathered from their plans—might have closed on the Chancellor and made •him :captive. Mr. Lloyd George passed unsuspectingly within a; few feet of the two, conspirators in' clothes, who were just then regarding the distant view through a pair, of glasses, and left them in -his rear. "The young couple had sauntered cl6se'Jto : tKe""p6int of recontre, ready to take and to act promptly upon any orders. Straps, a thick .woollen scarf, and a woollen jersey cap-, large enough to .pull down oyer a man's head rapidly -" ••were ready for use by three, men of "•; -powerful - physique and- trained. muscle, and a. young woman who had won some .distinction.as.an athlete. THE LOST CHANCE. ' " Fortunately for the Chancellor—and - perhaps not less fortunately for the plotters - themselves —the' all-important link in the scheme, that roomy, dosed car, with its spring shutters and other appropriate fittings, was wanting. "JNo one was near enough to have •interfered. Even had-the struggle attracted attention, the prisoner could have been in the car and the car half a mile on the road before ahy effective «id could hare beei* .rendered. Every probability, such as the number of the car being noted and the desperadoes being recognised, had been provided for as far as possible. "Tne car would have proceeded towards Caterham, but at a certain spot ■three of the party with their captive would have changed into another and quicker car and proceeded at top speed towards Hampshire, while >the first car would have made devious and circuitous '- journeys, throughout Hhe Kentish countryside, leaving false clues wherever it went, finally being abandoned on the coast, where signs of a severe struggle and articles of the Minister's clothing wobld . have been found between tho abandoned car and the sea. '.. "This ..lost opportunity nearly broke up the conspiracy, as the plan of the. electric switches had already been op-' posed -by certain of the conspirators on •titie score of. delay. Two of the number • seceded from the plot. The others stuck to their guns, but as fate vrould have it, Mr. Lloyd George was never again: caught at such a disadvantage." '- ' '