MURDER OF M. CALMETTE

Press, Volume L, Issue 14921, 20 March 1914, Page 7

MURDER OF M. CALMETTE

STORMY SCENE IX CHAMBER

M. CAILLAUX ASSAILED

(Bj C*b!e.— Pr«i» .Association.— Coppright.) PARIS. March 18. Madame Caiilaux. previous to visiting the ''Ffgaro" office, took counsel with friends. Finding that she was not likely to secure satisfaction for the attacks upon her husband by legal process, &he took tho law into her own hands. When M. Caiilaux heard that the Magistrate was going to detain his wife, ho said, "I regret that M. Calmette has been severely hurt, but I cannot disapprove of her deed." Hundreds of students assembled at the "Figaro" office and shouted "Down with Caiilaux the robber!" Tho newspapers comment on tho crime with almost indecent ferocity, probably owing to tho fact that someimportance. lies in the chance of sweeping M. Caiilaux from power. The debate in the Chamber of Deputies was tho stormiest since tho Dreyfus case. M. de la Hayo moved a motion calling upon the Government to dismiss thq Procurator-General, who had yielded to pressure exerted by M. Monis, who preceded M. Caiilaux as Premier, and allowed Rochotto to abscond, thus preventing a scandal involving M. Caiilaux. M. Barthou read a document, tho threatened publication of which, it is alleged, prompted Madame Caiilaux to commit tho deed. This was the Public Prosecutor's protest against the Ministerial pressure exerted to obtain immunity for Rochette. Its reading by M. Barthou caused an immense sensation. M. Ceccaldi, a friend of M. Caillaux's, accused M. Barthou of being M. Caillaux's assassin, being inflamed by political animosity. M. Monis denied the allegations, and demanded an enquiry into tho history of the document and how M. Barthou came to abstract it from the archives. The motion wns withdrawn in favour of one ordering a prolongation of the Rochette Commission of Enquiry.