BRIGANDAGE IN CORSICA

Evening Star, Issue 20980, 19 December 1931, Page 2

BRIGANDAGE IN CORSICA

END OF A LONG IMMUNITY [From ‘The Times.’] After many years of toleration, the French authorities recently declared war on those romantic pests, the brigands of Corsica. For the past month preparations for a grand coup have been proceeding steadily if unobtrusively by the gradual reinforcement from France- of the local gendarmerie. Yesterday (November 7) the veil lifted with the open, dispatch from Marseilles of a final draft of 560 men with armoured’ cars, a tank, machine guns, and specially-trained dogs in the transport: El Djem. Tips force,: which landed at Ajaccio to-day, is commanded by General Fournier,' while General Huot, commanding the 15th Division of Gendarmerie, will co-operate. The brigands have only themselves to blame. Formerly the majority of them were fugitives from iustice who had killed some enemy, usually in on© , of those blood feuds which still play a large part in the social code of the island. On the whole they gave little trouble; indeed, their one idea was to avoid it. They led miserable enough lives in the wild Maquis or upland brush, content for the sake of liberty to fare little better than the beasts. Then came the change. For some years past the brigands of Corsica have been gradually building up a very fair imitation of transatlantic methods. Seven or eight of the leaders' partitioned out the island between them, and each ruled supreme in his district. With gangs of armed supporters they faithfully followed the best traditions of the “Racket” business, levying toll wherever it suited them. The postal service ,• took their particular fancy. .Much at the island mail is 'carried by road, being let oift to local contractors. Road transport in such a country is particularly vulnerable, while the accessibility of the local contractor made organised blackmail easy. POSTAL BLACKMAIL. In July Bartoli, the uncrowned king of the Zicavo region,, quarrelled over the little matter of tribute money with M. Ollandini, the contractdr responsible for the postal service between Ajaccio and Propriano; The brigand at once issued iri_ the local Press a proclamation forbidding M. Ollandini the use of the road for his cars. Ten days later the lifting of the ban was announced, again in the Press, together with the intimation that the whole affair had been duo to a “ misunderstanding, now happily cleared up.” The reconciliation was brought about at a small hotel where Bartoli arrived with a 'modest bodyguard of 200 armed men, and was celebrated the same evening by a regular banquet at which Bartoli —.as he could well afford to do—played host. Another brigand, Spada, perhaps the most redoubtable of them all, gave convincing proof of his power in the Cinarca by effectively closing the road to postal vans between Ajaccio and Sopigna for two months. Cavaglioli, who reigned _ between Tiuccia r.nd Sagono, in addition to declaring various areas to be game preserves sacred to his own gun, instituted a toll system levied on all goods carried by road in his territory. So these Seigneurs du Maquis waxed daily more prosperous, more powerful, more insolent. Tourists, it is true, bad nothing to fear—the brigands were too shrewd to tamper with such rich revenue—but otherwise hardly a single aspect of life on the island was free from their influence. Apart from an occasional foray to bring some rebellious subject to reason or despatch some irreconcilable enemy, they had little to Tin but enjoy their wealth and their power. Some of them—again true to gangster tradition —blossomed out into positive foppishness, scorning all but the finest linen; while expensive motor cars-and the richest wines gave further proof of this new-born fastidiousness. A week ago the storm broke out of a clear sky. The police had been after Oaviglioli ever since his brutal murder ■—even the other brigands were disgusted—of a defenceless man during a raid on an hotel at Guagno-les-Bains in August. After a time Oaviglioli found their attention irksome and told them so, but in spite of the orders to discontinue their “revolting espionage” they still showed a lively interest in his affairs. He decided to teach them a lesson, and on Monday last, accompanied by a promising young nephew and another man, set an ambush for a police car which he knew was due to pass by. Two of the gendarmes were killed at the first fire, and two others, one of them an officer, wore seriously wounded; the remaining man took cover and, in a most gallant fight against odds, killed Caviglioli and wounded one of his companions. BEARDING A BRIGAND. Ifc was to be a bad week for the brigands. A hare five days later Bartoli met his end, not in a police ambush as was at first reported, but at the hands of M. Simonetti, a timber merchant of Palneca. It appears that some months ago, sooner than pay the customary tribute, M. Simonetti closed down his yard. The brigand was furious that M. Simonetti had not elected to continue his enterprise and pay the money. On Friday M. Simonetti, with the most desperate courage, boarded Bartoli in his stronghold of Palneca, and after a few heated words had passed invited Bartoli to discuss the matter elsewhere. The two men went into the woods, and in the quarrel which followed M. Simonetti shot the brigand dead with a revolver. It is now announced that Santoni, one of Bartoli’s band, lias also been'killed. Apart from his services in ridding Jho. district of such a scourge, the

courageous merchant seems to have acted at a particularly opportune moment. Immediately after the brigand's dcatli.it was discovered that lie had planned to raid on the following day the police barracks at Qiamannacio in revenge for the recent arrest of his brother. Telephone and telegraph wires were to have been cut and the roads blocked, and there is little doubt that the small garrison of the place would have had a bad time. General Knot and. his police have probably a long and arduous task before them, but it is hardly'likely to be very exciting. It seems #certain that there will be a series of individual drives against the various leaders. Their haunts will be “ ringed ” with troops; all avenues of escape will bo carefully guarded, and the circle of troops will gradually close in until one fine day there is one more brigand in prison or one loss on earth. A good deal of sentimental nonsense has been talked—and written —about Corsican brigands. The truth is that they are scuny knaves, for whom there is no place in a French island at this time of day, m