DRAMATIC SCENE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 138, 15 June 1927, Page 9

DRAMATIC SCENE

DAUDET SURRENDERS

TO PREFECT OF POLICE

(United Press Association.—Copyright.)

(Sydney Sun Cable.)

- PARIS, 13th June. . The surrender of Leon Daudet to the police was most dramatic. A procession of motor-cars drove through the police cordon. M. Chiappe, the now Prof ect of Police, stepped up and shouted: "I want to speak to Daudot," whereupon the Boyalist leader appeared on. the balcony, haggard and intensely fatigued. M. Chiappe said: "Daudot, I am speaking to you as man to man. You must surrender, as tho blood you may spill will not; bring back life to your boy." For a few moments both faced each other. Humdreds of onlookers burst into tears. . ■■• •

Daudot replied: "Monsieur Prefect, you have used human language. I know the forces behind me do not wish to cause bloodshed or cause civil war. I surrender."

The trouble with Leon Daudet began in 1923 when his son Philippe, aged 14J, was found shot in a taxi-cab, driven by Charles Bajot, and died in hospital. It was at first accepted as a ease of suicide by Daudet himself, but a suggestion that his son had been an anarchist, published in an Anarchist journal, led the father into allegations against the police and the taxi-driver. Bajot sued for damages for. libel and after an extraordinary trial Daudet was sentenced to three/ months' imprisonment. He ha* never served the sentence and has been at large since, but he has now surrendered, as described, to the police. -