SENSATIONAL CASE

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 31, 5 February 1917, Page 8

SENSATIONAL CASE

CONSPIRACY TO MURDER

PLOTS AGAINST LLOYD GEORGE

DIABOLICAL PLANS BY SUFFRA-

GETTES.

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPYRIGHT.)

(AUSTRALIAN-KEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, 3rd February. At the hearing of the charges against Mrs. Alice Wheeldon, her daughters Harriet and Mrs. Winifred Mason, and the latter's husband, Alfred Mason,' of conspiring against Mr. Lloyd George's life, the Attorney-General (Sir F. E. Smith) said that it had been propo^sd to shoot poison darts at Mr. Lloyd George when he was golfing. (Received February 5, 11 a.m.) LONDON, 4th February. • At. the poisoning conspiracy trial atDerby, the Attorney-General said the prisoners were dangerous and desperate people, bitterly hostile to Britain, and sheltered fugitives from the Army. The man was a chemist of considerable skill, and had specially studied poisons. The Government employed an' agent, who assumed the name of Gordon, who 'ingratiated himself with Mrs. Wheeldon. Another agent named Booth pretended to be a fugitive from the Army and a member of the Independent Workers of the/World. "Mrs. Wheeldon-told them that poison could be dropped on articles to be used; and added, " When I hand the ■poison to; you I wash my hands of the matter, and will deny ever having given it." Mrs. Wheeldon also said she had planned that when Mr. Lloyd Georga was staying at an hotel to drive nails dipped in poison into his boots, but his departure for France , thwarted the scheme. She also intended- "doing-Mr. M'Kenna in" by driving a poisoned needle into his skull. Mason had agreed to provide a particularly rare poison for the. purpose. Counsel stated that the poison was contained in four phials, two being of strychnine hydrochloride and one the American poison, curare, used by the natives in poisoning arrows. Booth and Gordon called on Mrs. Wheeldon on Ist January. She indulged in blasphemous language about Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Henderson, and expressed the hope that both would soon be dead. Mr. Lloyd George, she said, had been the n fans of millions of innocent lives being sacrificed, while Mr. Henderson was a traitor to the, people. Mr. Asquith was the brains of the party, but he was neither good enough for heaven or bad enough for hell. Mrs. Wheeldon 'ap-' I parently intended to get Gordon to commit the actual crime. Her denunciations included the ICing. Booth asked her how she intended to carry out the plot, and she, replied, ";We had plans, when the Suffragettes spent £300 to poison them." When the phials were received from Southampton complete instructions how to use the poisons accompanied them. The hearing was adjourned.