WAR MISTAKE

Hokitika Guardian, 22 January 1935, Page 5

WAR MISTAKE

FRENCH FAMILY EXONERATED

(Unitsd Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright).

PARIS, January 20

The Special Military Court has given its decision on the appeal for rehabilitation by members of a family who were condemned for high treason in war time. They are the sons of Louis Moreou. The Court decided that they shall be rehabilitated, and iawarded them nine hundred sterling as damages. The father of the family was Louis AI orenu, who was past military age. He continued to work as a miner at Loos-en-Youellc, whore his wife and sons also remained, despite the proximity of the German lines. A neighbour denounced the family in November, 1914, alleging tLet they were signalling to the enemy. There was a raid in their house, which resulted m the discovery of a lantern 1 marked “Made in Germany.” The father, Louis Moreau, was sentenced to five years, and he died at the penal settlement of Cayenne. The mother was sentenced to death, hut the sentence was commuted to twenty years’ imprisonment. She died in gaol. The sons respectively served ten years and five years at Cayenne. Then they returned to France. At the hearing, a witness gave evidence as t-o the impossibility of Germans seeing signals from the Moreau’s house, and to the unlikelihood of the family, who were all illiterate, knowing the Morse Cede.