STILL DETERMINED

Evening Star, Issue 20375, 6 January 1930, Page 9

STILL DETERMINED

M. DAUDEFS INTENTIONS Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON January 4. The Paris correspondent of 1 The Times ’ states that M. Daudet has lost no time in defining in his paper, ‘ L’Action Francaise,’ his future attitude. He says: “I shall struggle more stoutly than ever. I find no grounds for gratitude towards the Government for terminating a scandalous iniquity by ending my twenty-nine months’ exile. My decision remains unchanged to seek the punishment of the police who murdered my son. I will hound down the servile criminal magistrates who rendered an unjust verdict, and as for M. Barthou and M. Poincare—we shall see.’’ [ln December, 1923 Philippe Daudet, the fiftecn-year-old son of Leon Daudet, a director of the Royalist paper ‘ L’Action Francaise,’ was shot dead. He was reported to have joined an Anarchist society, and it was alleged that the police had him removed as a dangerous person, putting forward the theory that he had committed suicide His father denied that Philippe was an Anarchist, and bitterlv attacked the police, accusing them of murdering the boy. Rajot, the driver of the cab in which Philippe was found shot, uo.l M. Daudet for £2,000 damages for having libellously accused him of complicity in the supposed crime. The court found Daudet guilty of criminal libel, and sentenced him to five months’ .m prisonment. An appeal was lodged against the sentence in February, but was dismissed. In June, 1927, when called upon to give himself up for imprisonment, Daudet' barricaded himself in his offices, which were surrounded by a body sruard of armed Royalists. Five days later he surren dered to the police. On June 24 a Royalist practical joker, imitating the voice of M. Sarrant, Minister of the Interior, telephoned to the prison authorities and order M. Daudct’s release. The authorities complied with the order, and Daudet left Paris. Towards the end of last month tho Government granted him an amnesty, and lie returned to France in time to spend the new year festivities at his Paris home.]