YOUNG WOMAN TAKES HUEY LONG'S PLACE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 216, 12 September 1935, Page 7

YOUNG WOMAN TAKES HUEY LONG'S PLACE.

AMAZING POSITION.

Carnival Mood Evident in

Louisiana.

COMING BATTLE FOR POWER.

(United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright)

(Received 1 p.m.)

XEW ORLEANS, September 11

Rumours, alarums and curious facts about the late Huey P. Long, Senator and virtual dictator of Louisiana, who was fatally shot on Sunday by a political enemy, Dr. Weiss, are being unearthed from many sources to fill the front pages of the newspapers.

The body is lying in state in the flagdraped skyscraper Capitol at Baton Rouge, which was built through his

energy and efforts, and on whose shrubdotted grounds he will buried to-morrow.

Earle Christenberry, secretary to Mr. Long, stated that the Senator knew in advance that lie was marked for deatli and that a dictagraph had been secreted in a room where a gang, of which Dr. Weiss was a member, met and revealed that lots were going to be drawn for selection of the assassin.

"Dr. Weiss drew the short straw," adds the secretary. "He realised it was suicide, but 'figured' it was better to die a martyr to some people rather than be found on a lively road with his own throat cut."

While the successor to Mr. Long's mantle,is yet problematical, the interesting disclosure is made that a • young woman, a former secretary to Mr. Long, was, through his influence, appointed to the position of supervisor of public accounts with control, without any possibility of interference, of all State funds—approximately 44,000,000 dollars.

Mr. Long, in the interest of maintaining power over the purse-strings of the State, had had laws passed making interference with the supervisor impossible. It is therefore seen that she at the present time holds the balance in the coming struggle for control over the State's affairs.

Baton Eouge was rapidly filling with mourners to-day, principally farmers in red spattered "fliv.vers" from the countryside.

Observers, however, note that only a few tears are being shed, the atmosphere being more one of a carnival.