TAMMANY TOUCH.
COMMUNIST MAYOR CHARGED. PARIS, March 10. The trial has opened at Aix-en-Provence of what is known as "the case of the Fantastic Municipality." Esprit Pioch, the Communist Mayor of the village of Saintes Marie de Lamer, is charged witll having misappropriated public funds amounting to several million francs. Sixteen alleged accomplices, including the local gravediggcr, arc similarly charged.
It is alleged that men long since dead had been maintained on the registers and received payment for services rendered. A fisherman stated that he received substantial rewards for ridding the shores of imaginary monsters.
A young -woman entitled "official typist" had never touched a typewriter. She visited the Town Hall only to draw her salary. Many grandiose schemes were started with the object of making the village a rival to Cannes and Nice. Eight years of Pioch's rule had increased the local budget tenfold. The Minister for the Interior last year dismissed Pioch, whom the villagers promptly re-elected, but his spectacular career continued only for a little longer before his arrest.
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Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 69, 22 March 1934, Page 7
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172TAMMANY TOUCH. Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 69, 22 March 1934, Page 7
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