A DRAMA OF JEALOUSY ON THE HIGH SEAS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 128, 1 June 1935, Page 25

A DRAMA OF JEALOUSY ON THE HIGH SEAS

A high-seas drama of a woman's despair at the prospect 'of losing her lover was revealed at Marseilles recently on the arrival from Algiers of the French luxury liner El Djezair, says the "Daily Express." As passengers, including many women, were strolling in the cool night air before going to their cabins to dress for dinner, five shots rang out in rapid succession on the boat deck. Women shrieked in horror as they turned and saw an Army officer writhing on the dsck in agony while over him a haggard-eyed woman stood clutching a smoking revolver. Officers and sailors rushed to bear the wounded man to the ship's hospital,,while the woman, her deed accomplished, let fall the revolver from her trembling hand and collapsed fainting on the deck. The protagonists in this drama were Major Marcel Kervella, aged forty-five, of the 15th Senegalese Rifles, stationed in Algeria, and Madame Berthe Vermeren, aged forty-seven, ■ a Belgian woman, divorced wife of a bank manager in Algiers, and mother of two children. A woman passenger who witnessed the rapid altercation between the two which preceded the shooting, said that she heard Mme. Vermeren exclaim: "You have ruined my life. You are not fit to wear your uniform." Before he lapsed into unconsciousness in the ship's hospital, Major Kervella murmured: "Do not hurt her. It is all my fault."

The explanation of the woman's wild denunciation and the officer's plea was furnished by Mme. Vermeren in a dramatic statement to the liner's captain. She met Major ■ Kervella two years ago, she said, at a dance given at a small garrison town in Algeria- She fell madly in love with him. Although the mother of a boy of twelve and a girl of ten, she left her husband and family to follow the officer's fortunes. Her husband obtained a divorce from her a year ago and she lived with Major Kervella at Bona and Philippeville. Then came the blow which shattered her happiness. Major Kervella told her he had made a mistake in linking his life with hers as it was hampering his career. He had asked for leave to go to France and would never return to her. - In despair she dogged his footsteps to Algiers. When she found he had booked a cabin in the El Djezair she did likewise and then bought a revolver, with a tragic sequel. A wireless message was sent to the Marseilles police, and an ambulance was waiting when the liner docked to rush Major Kervella to the military hospital at Marseilles. Though his condition was very serious he kept repeat ing his plea for leniency for the woman. Mme. Vermeren, sobbing convulsively in her cell at the women's prison, insisted that she was out of her mind and did not realise the folly of. her act.