A FATEFUL BULLET

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11827, 7 January 1933, Page 9

A FATEFUL BULLET

TRAGEDY OE SARAJEVO

ITS TERRIBLE SEQUEL.

In Serajevo, the beautiful Bosnian city of mosques and churches, IS years ago an IS-year-old student fired two shots from his revolver which started the World War, the anniversary of the British Empire’s .entry iiit-o which was on. August 4 last. It was on Sunday, June. 2S, .1914,' that .the student, Gnvrijo Prink hip standing on the sidewalk near the corneor of Rudolf and Francis Joseph Streets in Sorajovo, aimed carefully with bis pistol and fired a 'fatal bullet into the right side of the Duchess of Hobenberg, and then trained his weapon upon ■ Archduke -Francis Ferdinand, who was beside bis wife in an- automobile, and filed the shot which killed the heir apparent to the- Austro-Hungarian throne, The world is familiar with the events which followed. How the .ultimatum from Are+Hn-Hungar-v t° the little kingdom of Serbia brought on a war which soon involved the principal nations of the world is common knowledge to-day. Tn fact, the entire world still is puyhicr for the Great War, and pi-Anblv will pw for man-r* a voa”. TPhpn Ihe world p*»vc it always remembers. n? t an T^-e.^rvtYlllo 1 * r™'® - oklAQr, CfVl of ' Ghprles T.onis and w-nliow of Fin-i-ei-or Erancis Josonh. On the death of the Grown Prince Rudolph, on Janunrv 90 lqqq Ferflingnd became ihe bei-- to the Aiistrn-TTnuearia’n /Monarchy. On Julv 1. 1900, he married Countess Sophie C’otok. As sb« was not of royal blood, he renounced all rie-hts of succession for anv ebdA. ren of the union. The renunciation was ratified hv the Parliaments of Austria and Hungary. AT ORE BULLET-RE OOP SHIRT. 11l 190 S Au.stnn-T-TiMwm annexed Bnauia and Hornzgoviua. Tt was during an official visit to the eanital of Bosnia, as representative of tire Emperor, that- the Archduke and bis wife, who bad been given the title of duchess, met their deaths; Sarajevo at tbai time was in almost open i ,K surroction against the Austrian. Government. Many of its people believed that Bosnia should have been ;•!- jotted to tile Serbs. • Students of the oily wore especially wrought up over the annexation, and it was a student ennspiraev that resulted in the double assassination.

The archduke and his wife, as I bey motored into the city of Saraievo. wove acconvoanied hr a large mdiiai'v suite, ns thov feared an a; I erupt upon their lives. The archduke is said to have been wearino* a h’dVf,. nroof shirt beneath hie; coat. "While in the outskirts of the cvlv e bomb wn« hurled at their notomohPn h-*- a man named Ncdelio GaVu’inovirs. Ihr> bomb missed is target, but exploded beneath a, car directly behind that of the archduke. Tn the explosion Colonel Morizzi, aide-de-camp to the archduke, and Count AValdeek wd'e injured. Six other persons also were hurt. Gabrinovie-. v—-. captured by the police. The archduke's automobile proceeded to the eitv ball, where the royal couple listened to a speech bv-AL Poliorek. Governor of Bosnia,. Then the two departed in their car fo r a hospital to inquire concerning the condition of the. wonnde*- Colonel Aforizzi. PRTNCIP’S DREADFUL. ACCURACY. The car was driven into a jamb of traffic near the corner of Rudolf and -FanrcU Joseph streets, and as the chauffeur started to drive off a small bridge over the Alil.jac-ha River, Pi’incip, the youthful student, fired at tho archduke -and his, wife. Princip was an expert shot, and, having been informed that the archduke wore a bulletproof shirt, he aimed at his victim’s neck. The archduke and his wife died in each ■other’s aikns without uttering a word. On October 26, 1914, Princip, Gabrinovics and 22 others were found guilty of treason. Princip was .given a sentence of 20 years, four of the plotters were sentenced to be banged, and the others got prison terms of varying lengths. Princip died of tuberculosis in a prison fortress near Prague on April 30, 1918. He was buried in Yugoslavia, and after the armistice, when Bosnia became Yugoslavian territory, his body, with those of six of his accomplices, was removed to Sarajevo. Princip’s name is honoured in ATigoslavia today as that of a patriot, though there is no inscription upon tho simple slab which marks bis tomb in the city in which ho killed Francis Ferdinand and the duchess.