YOUNG DAUDET'S DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 292, 7 December 1923, Page 5

YOUNG DAUDET'S DEATH.

DOCTORS SAT SUICIDE. FRIENDS UNCONVINCED. LONDON, December 6. As a result of a post-mortem examination of Philippe Daudet, doctors are of unanimous opinion that he committed suicide. Police investigations up to the present have revealed no new facts, but mystery attaches to a witness who gave evidence at the magisterial inquiry in camera. Considerable pains were taken by the police to preserve his anonymity, on the ground that his life was otherwise endangered. The Paris correspondent of the "Morning Post" states that M. Leon Daudet and hie friends persist in the allegation that Philippe was done to death by their anarchist enemies. They suggest that the only alternative to the theory of hypnotic suicide is that Philippe was shot by an assassin through a window of the taxi cab in which he was found dead.

It is believed that the mysterious witness was called to testify to one or other of these theories. When he entered and left the Law Courts he was surrounded by a band of young Royalists, who screened his identity and prevented photographs from being taken. The police yesterday, when examining the taxi cab, discovered lying in a crack between the floor boards an empty cartridge case corresponding in calibre to those used in the revolver found near Philippe's body. The story is now told of a stranger's arrival at the garage and his inspection of the cab. It is suggested that he was an anarchist and placed the cartridge case in the cab. The mystery continues to absorb the interest of the Paris public. The "Daily Express" says that a number of missing documents throwing light on the case were found sown in the dress of a sweetheart of C'oloter, a member ot the staff of the anarchist journal "Liberj taire." These included the manuscript of prose poems by Philippe, on the first folio of which was written. "Good-bye to mother. None will discover the feeling that directs me."—(A. and N.Z.)