TAXI-CAB MYSTERY

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 59, 4 December 1923, Page 7

TAXI-CAB MYSTERY

1 — SON OF FRENCH ROYALIST LEADER FOUND DEAD ANARCHISTS SUSPECTED By Telegraph—Press Association. Copyright. (Rec. December 3, 5.5 p.m.) Paris, December 2. On October 25 Philippe Daudet, the fifteen-year-old son of Leon Daudet, the Royalist leader and director of the newspaper “Action Francaise,” was found dead in a taxi-cab, with a revolver bullet in his head. It was generally assumed that he committed suicide, but following the receipt of fresh information, notably the statement of the Anarchist journal “Liberttaire” that Philippe, before taking his life, was enrolled as a member of the Anarchists, his father has come to. the conclusion that his son was assassinated, and has requested the public prosecutor to take steps in order that justice may be executed. Th# father, owing to his campaign against the anti-Nationalist element, has created a host of enemies amongst the Anarchists.

Last January Maurice Plateau, secretary of the “Action Fraicaise,” was shot in his office by a girl named Germaine Berthen. According to the “Liberttaire,” Philippe, who was of an extremely nervous and morbid temperament. visited the . “ Liberttaire’s” office and offered, without revealing his identity, to avenge Germaine Berthen, who thus far had not been convicted. Phlippe left' a letter addressed to his mother, in which he stated that he had long been an Anarchist, adding: “Now the cause calls me. I think it mv duty to do what I am about to do.” His father is convinced that Philippe intended to act as a secret agent for the patriotic party, but was identified, and either murdered or terrorised into committing suicide. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.