CONVENT TRAGEDY A MYTH

Evening Star, Issue 19855, 2 May 1928, Page 13

CONVENT TRAGEDY A MYTH

CABLED ACCOUNT DENIED [Pb* United Pms Association.! INVERCARGILL, May 1. In connection with the cabled account of tho shooting of four nuns in a Spanish convent, the Rev, D. P. Buckley, of Riverton, writes to tho ‘ Southland Times 1 as follows “ While I was in Europe towards tho end of last year, I read in some Englisli papers of an alleged Spanish convent scandal identical with the one published this morning. English Catholic authon ties immediately made inquiries, and discovered the whole' business to be a hoax, without any foundation in fact Apparently the Press Association in England has been short of sensational news for despatch to these countries, and has resurrected an old tale for easy consumption in these parts.” [The message in question stated (on the authority of the Paris correspondent of the ‘ Daily Chronicle ’) that an a -dug tragedy is reported from a Spanish convent at Valladolid. A girl pupil told her father, who is a Spanish officer, of certain scandalous happenings in the convent school, and tho nuns, out of revenge, hanged the girl. References to tho tragedy wero strictly forbidden by tho Spanish censorship, but the story was inadvertently published by a San Sebastian paper. The girl was a day pupil at the convent school, and following her complaint her father called on the mother superior, and threatened to withdraw the child. Tho mother superior promised to inquire, but tho girl did not return home that night, When the nuns refused to allow’ a search, the father forced his way into tho school, and, with a revolver in his hand, finally came to a door, where a group of nuns refused to allow him to enter. The father brushed the women aside, broke down the door, and found his daughter hanging at the end of a rope. Mad with grief, he fired all the bullets tho revolver Contained, killing four sisters. He then rushed out to inform the police.,']