KING OF YUGOSLAVIA ASSASSINATED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 4403, 11 October 1934, Page 2

KING OF YUGOSLAVIA ASSASSINATED.

ALSO FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER.

CROWD LYNCHES CROATIAN

MURDERER.

KING GEORGE’S SYMPATHY.

Marseilles, October 9. King Alexander of Yugoslavia, M. Louis Barthou, French Foreign Minister, and General Georges, a member of the French Supreme War Council, who were accompanying King Alexander, were all .assassinated here to-day. A number of individuals in the crowd fired at King Alexander during a procession after landing. King Alexander, General Gorges, and M. Barthou were in a motorcar when the bullets were fired. Alexander fell back with blood streaming from his mouth and chest. Several others were wounded, and a woman was shot dead. M. Barthou’s left aim was fractured, and it was first believed that the injury was not serious, but later lie collapsed and died following an unsuccessful operation and

:od transfusion. General Georges died of wounds.

The crowd lynched the assassin, who was Petrus Kalemen, a native of Zagreb. . V

King Alexander had only just disembarked, and was driving through cheering crowds in the Place de la Bourse when the assassin broke from the crowd through the police cordon and jumped on to the' footboard of the car, from which ho fired a series of revolver shots. A mounted officer in the escort spurred forward and 1 struck him to the ground with a sabre. King Alexander was shot through the head and died almost immediately. Monsieur Barthou was shot in the thigh and arm, and died under an anaesthetic.

The ear proceeded at all speed to the hospital, but King Alexander had died from his wounds within a very few minutes, and, later, M. Barthou collapsed: and died during an operation. The infuriated crowd, seized Kalemen, trampled him down, twisted his limbs, and tried to tear him to pieces. He was thrown into a cell, but apparently was already dead. It is ascertained' that he was a shoplkeeper and bore a Zagreb rassport, on which he entered F ranee.

The chauffeur of the Royal car said that a stout man, shabbily dressed, wrenched himself from the crowd and enacted the tragedy. The chauffeur, exhibiting torn and bleeding hands, added: “I seized the assassin by the neck. Colonel Poillet, riding beside the eax*, slashed him with a sabre. The assassin then tried to shoot himself in the mouth but the police prevented him.” Colonel Poillet. corroborated the chauffeur’s story, adding: “Though I pulled my charger round to throw the assassin from the runningboard, I was unable to prevent him thrusting his arm through the window and emptying his revolver at King Alexander, with whom M. Barthou and General Georges were seated. I struck down the murderer and the chauffeur fired at him as he rolled to the ground, from which he continued firing, the bullets striking M. Berthelot, a policeman and a woman spectator. The police rushed forward as the cavalrymen repelled the crowd and another man, possibly an accomplice, escaped in the pandemonium following the shooting.”

Two revolvers and a bomb were found on Kaleman. A Greek, Basile Patademetriou, has been arrested on suspicion.

A cameraman chanced to be making a news film at the very moment of the assassination and his film was immediately handed over to the Marseilles police.

The murderer thrust an aim through a window of the carriage and fired within, ten inches of the King bullets of a large calibre; so the unfortunate monarch had no chance. A post-mortem examination reveals two bullets in his arms and two near his heart. Alexander was dead within ten minutes of stepping ashore. King Alexander was on his way to Paris, where he was to have had important political conversations With the French Government.

King Alexander was in his 46th year, and suoceeded to the throne in August, 1920. He married in the following year Princess Marie of Rumania. Their son, the heirapparent, is the 11-year-old Crown Prince Peter, who came to England last month to be educated, and is at present at a preparatory school in Surrey.

The late King is a relative of Princess Marina, the latter’s sister having married Prince Paul, a nephew of King Alexander. He hart intended to visit London for the marriage of Prince George and Princess Marina.

Queen Marie of Serbia had not travelled with her husband, but had proceeded overland, and the news of her husband’s death was communicated to her at Basle.

News of the terrible events in Marseilles was conveyed to the King and Queen at Sandringham this evening. Their Majesties sent a personal and private telegram to the bereaved Queen, expressing their profound sympathy. The body 7 of the late King Alexander lies on a wide green couch, with a flag across his feet, flanked by 7 two guards with sabres raised in motionless salute. Flowers are strewn on the floor. Alexander’s remains will he taken to Yugoslavia aboard the Dubrovnik, escorted by French cruisers.

King heir. Prince Peter, aged 11, arrived in London recently, accompanied by his English tutor, and entered' Sandroyd School in Surrey. This was his : first separation from his parents. Special plans were made to ensure his safety during the journey. Peter speaks five languages, rides „and swims, and is able to drive a car.

The Yugoslav Legation in London announces that Prince Peter has been proclaimed King, in Belgrade, but a period! of military dictatorship is the most likely outcome', in order to avoid civil war between the Croats and the Serbs. Kalemen and his brother were : recently charged wtih the murder of M. Neudorfer,. Croat Minister for Agriculture, during the dictatorship. Kalemen was acquitted, while his brother received a term of imprisonment. Alexander was severely criticised for the treatment of his elder brother, George, who, after a brilliant war record, was unscrupulously employed to force Alexander’s hand in certain matters, as a result of which Alexandter sent'him to a private asylum in 1924. George had already renounced the succession. Alexander’s father, King Peter, always recognised Alexander as the I Crown Prince and appointed him Regent. Ho was, therefore, Commander -in- Chief when the war broke out in 1914. Pour previous attempts had been made on Alexander’s life. His fate accords with the grim tradition that Serbian Kings never die in bed. Mrs P. S. Copeland, a lecturer at Ljubljana University, who is now in England, declares that the assassination is the greatest Eim>pean calamity since 1914. Alexander was a peacemaker who translated Balkan friendship into reality. Nobody would have dared at.tack him in his native land, where he was intensely popular.