REMARKABLE SCENE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 29 October 1928, Page 5

REMARKABLE SCENE

AT UNVEILING CEREMONY FRENCH ROY A LISTS’ DEMONSTRATION United Press Association—By Electric Teiegrapli—(Jopyriglit Australian Press Association (Received 29th October, 1.20 p.m.) PARIS, 28th October. There was a remarkable scene at Pons during the unveiling of a marble statue of a tormer anti-clerical Premier, Emile Combes, by M. Hermit. The actual ceremony had closed, when a band of young Royalists broke down the police cordon which had been formed in anticipation of trouble and rushed the bust. One quickly hammered off the nose and chin, while his comrades were engaged in a fierce struggle with the police. Many of the latter were knocked down in the melee.

'The police drew revolvers and fired, one of the demonstrators being fatally shot, while another received a bullet in his arm.

The shock quelled the excited Royal - islse, who abandoned the struggle. Twelve were arrested, and the others escaped, terrified. The crowd fled before the shuts.

There were several threats previously that the statue would not ho tolerated, hilt the police were off their guard because the attack was delayed until M. Harriot had completed the unveiling and departed. The Archbishop of the Bordeaux Diocese, including Pons, recently issued a manifesto of protest against the eur®inonv.