STAVISKY'S SUICIDE

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 8, 10 January 1934, Page 7

STAVISKY'S SUICIDE

FRESH DEVELOPMENTS

A MINISTER RESIGNS

United Press Association—By. electric Telegrapb Copyright PARIS, January 9. Shooting himself in the head in a locked room when detectives were entering the isolated alpine chalet, in which he was hidden, Stavisky, the financier for -whom the French police have been eagerly searching since the discovery of the Bayonne frauds, inflicted wounds from which he later died without, regaining consciousness. The police arrested a man and a woman who, it is understood, accompanied him on his last .flight, and arc fcearehing for two others who arc known to have been in his company. M. Picaglio, a pressman with whom the financier stayed when .he fled from Paris, told the examining Magistrate) that Stavisky joinedl) him at.a villa at Servoz, Haute Savoy, a week ago. When he learned that a warrant had been issued Picaglio told Stavisky that he must leave the villa. "THEY WON'T GET MB." The financier, tired, toyed with a revolver and said: "They won't get mo." When he drove to Chamonix his male companion and a woman' remained at Servoz. Meanwhile iho Ministerial side of the scandal has reached a crisis, the outcome being the -resignation of M. Dalimier, Minister for the Colonies. He convinced his colleagues of his bona fides, but M. -Cliautemps, Premier, decided that he would be better able to meet the firo of questions in the' Chamber if M. Dalimier was not a member, and so offered him a "good conduct certificate" which he can use in. his own defence. M. Chautom'ps, at a meeting of Cabinet, admitted that the investigations had revealed .certain faults and negligences. ' He said he "would discuss with his colleagues without delay the reforms shown to be necessary, among them the complete reorganisation of the French police, closer control of correctional tribunals, the protection of public savings, and a closer watch, on a certain profession. ' ' STAVISKY'S SPECTAOULAE CAREER. Newspapers arc filled with details of Staviskyjs spectacular career. He was imprisoned for cheque frauds in Paris in 1916, when his father committed suicide to avoid giving evidence against his,son. Later ha.was .concerned in a jewel-dealing swindle, but the trial was unaccountably postponed. His latest enterprise was connected with the purchase of dispossessed Hungarian owners' lands. . ' The Spanish political troubles were taken- advantage '.of to cover the Bayonne ovcr-issuo of credit bonds, which)was plausibly explained as duo to the fact that Spanish refugees had pawned a' quantity of jewels. . M. Garat, Mayor of Bayonne, and chairman of the pawnbrokiug establishment concerned, who has been arrested, i(3 also president of the Radical Socialists of the Basses Pyrenees, the party to which M." Chautemps belongs. The police searched the house and offices of M. Garat at Bayonne; also his Paris residence. His wife sent a message to him in. prison: "Tell him I love Mm more than ever." ~ , Maitre Campinchi, one of the most brilliant counsel at the Paris Bar, has arrived at Bayonne to undertake the Mayor's defence. DEMONSTRATIONS IN BAYONNE. The National Taxpayers' Federation .issued , a statement threatening to suspend payment of' taxes until "those responsible for the swindle'1' are made to pay up. Demonstrations occurred at the Palais de Justice and the house of the, Mayor of Bayonne. Three arrests wcro made. , - *" ' The Law Courts demonstrators were mostly Royalists who produced banners saying: "liown with ■ the Regime," "Down with the'polico," "Down with the politicians. 1' Forty arrests were made before order was restored.