LAST OF “DEVIL’S ISLAND.”
SCENE' OF DREY FITS’ MARTYRDOM. PARIS, Sept. 14. The French Cabinet has decided to Suppress the colonial penal settlement in French Guiana known as Devil’s Island, where Major Dreyfus spent four terrible years.
This decision follows an investigation which ended in the conclusion that the existence of such institutions was medieval and a slur on the ideals of French justice. Convicts are exposed to malaria epidemics, and few escape the disease.
All the convicts will be brought back to France, -where they will be confined in ordinary prisons until permanent acconnhodation is? provided for them.' Their number is about 2500. Devil’s Island is a barren rock once used for the isolation of lepers. Dreyfus lived in a stone hut, about 13ft square, with grated windows. By day he was allowed to move about in a small space near the landing place,, but the guards who watched hini continually prevented him speaking to anybody. The notorious Eddie Guerin escaped from. Devil’s Island after four years there.
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Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 November 1924, Page 2
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169LAST OF “DEVIL’S ISLAND.” Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 November 1924, Page 2
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