BY WHOSE HAND

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 11404, 3 January 1931, Page 9

BY WHOSE HAND

STRANGE END TO PRESIDENT HARDING’S LIFE/ ; •

DRAMATIC .DETAILS

A book,. “The Strange Death 1 qf .President Harding,” 'by Gaston ,B. Means, : has become a best, seller in the United ; States ,an,d ‘is : shortly to bo published in England .by John Hamilton, Ltd. The hook attaches a'sinister significance to the fact that Mrs Harding was alone with her husband for a few minutes before he expired. 1 Mrs Harding ' herself' died at Marion in November, 1924. ■ .

Mr Mean's,' who acted as her private detective and professes to have received her confidences, conveys his allegations in suggestive phrases which have no meaning at all if they do not mean that a wife, jealous of her husband’s national and domestic honor, encompassed; his end for the dual purpose of saving him/from' impending impeachment and preventing him from ‘ retiring into seclusion with liis illegitimate child. : \ Mr Means, an investigator of the Department of Justice, emerged from prison—where he had served three years- for violation of the liquor laws —to make his startling allegations, which, it must be said, are no more than biased deductions from certain wild utterances credited to Mrs Harding.

Ho pin-ports to reveal in dramatic detail impassioned scenes at the White House arising.out of President Harding’s liaison with Nan Britton, the daughter of an old hometown friend, hv 1 whom he ; had a child.

On the eve of the Washington Disarmament Conference, inaugurated in November, 1921, when' President Harding was about to enjoy a few fleeting months of eminence' ’• as a world leader, 1 Mrs Harding (according to this book) employed Means to unearth the facts about Nan Britton.

She believed that certain of 1 liis Cabinet officers held over him ‘ the threat of exposure of the Britton affair.

Acting on her instructions, Means says he stole the letters Nan Britton had received from the President and also the jewellery he had sent her and his presents to liis child, and took all this sorry evidence to Mrs- Harding... _ -.w. .... . . -

“YOU HAVE RUINED ME.

He describes a heated scene at the White House when the President burst in on the detective, and Mrs Harding. The infuriated- Chief ' of State forthwith discharged Means from the Department of Justice, and shaking a clenched fist - at bis wife, cried, “You have ruined me — you and your contemptible detectives !”

President Harding died while ou liis way home from Alaska with his wife and an entourage selected by her. Means declares that shortly before the trip began Mrs Harding told him she had warned -her husband that she feared the imminent exposure of the bribery and graft carried on by some of bis Cabinet officers.

Then he seemed to go all /to pieces. He said: “Darn it, let- it come! Let it come! God—l’ll he glad to have it come and over with.it!”

“you’ll .be impeached!’’. “I will* tell the truth!” “You will be disgraced!” ' “I will-tell' the truth !” : . ' . “You . may, ho imprisoned !” . “I will*tell the truth- The exact truth. . “There can bo no .jury. no. twelve American men or women who would send me to gaol. Bub.even in a gaol a prison would be peace compared to this! I am no crimianl. Let them impeach! God knows,. I’m. sick and tired of it all.. I’ll ho glad to have it over. Glad! Glad! • . - \ . < _ “If they impeach^—then—then do you know what I’ll do? Do you want to know ? I’ll toll you! The world; is a big place—and —I’ll take, my child and go away. No one shall keep me from my child. You shall You. hear me? You shall'not. ... I registered a solemn vow (Mrs Harding is recorded as saying to Means)—a solemn vow that never, never, 'never would he' take his child and go away! ’. From that night, in spite oi Ms spoken word.. for, forgiveness, there has been hidden war ‘between us. . . I hate Warren, Harding, with, a hatred greater than ,my . former ..loye,. and affection.. • , 1 - - ■ I think of the. poor weak fool—tue President of the United States billing to be disgraced .ahcV impeached and made, a laughing-stock cv|. ,the whole world .and go, down in histoiy in this, way —because ,he had determined to get hold of to keep his illegitimate child • • . •; whoso mothei is' thirty years •; younger than he—a va,in,' silly little fool who loves his money and the thrills of his attentions' and ■ the- excitement of their rendezvous.. On the day the body of the President ivas brought to Washington for the lying-in-State, Mrjs. Harding . >s said to have given Means this , account .of his end: . - “I was alone with .the President and . • only about ten'minutes. It was time for his' medi-

cine. .... 1 gave it to him ... , . he drank it He lay back ou the pillow for u> moment. His eyes were ' closed. . . lie was resting . . . . Then —suddenly— he opened liis eyes wide.. . . and moved his head and looked straight into my face. I was standing -by bis bedside.” As she caused I (Means) could not refrain the question (sic) :

“You think—he knew?” “Yes. I think he knew. Thenlie sighed and turned his head, away —over : —on the pillow. . . . After a few minutes —I called for help. The papers told the rest. . . . “Had he lived twenty-four hours longer he might have been impeached. . . . I have not betrayed my country’ or the party that my husband loved so much. They are saved—and I have no regrets— I have fulfilled my destiny.” ’ Then out of the deep—almost impressive—silence ‘that followed, and as if in answer to my unuttered question, in a stiff,- frozen voice, without a tremor, she looked me full in the face and said: “Mr Means—there are some things that one tells—nobody.”

To which I replied: “Mrs Harding there are some things—it is not necessary to tell.” The book has no historical ‘value.' As to all that passed between Means and Mrs'Harding, we have only his uncorroborated ■ ‘ Meanwhile a little boy has gone to school in New-York, entered by .the name of Briton' Harding, • whose father is inscribed in the records as “late [President- of the United States.” •