TURMOIL IN PARIS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12070, 13 September 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

TURMOIL IN PARIS.

EXTRAORDINARY SCENES.

Rams, July There is no doubt that the agitation against the Government for summarily closing the non-authorised Catholic schools is gathering strength, and it is being most skilfully engineered. Three well-known Nationalist.*—MM. Pugliesi-Condi, Lerolle, and Gaston Mery— •were instrumental to-day in organising a demonstration against the closing of the school of the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul in the Hue Bacon.

When a dozen nuns with their white Mapping caps marched from the school the Nationalists attempted to break through the cordon of police and join them. But they were repulsed, and sought consolation in shouting "Long live liberty!" "Down with Sectarians !" and " Down with the Jews !"

On a second attempt being made to break through the barriers the police charged the crowd, and after a violent scuffle mounted men of the Garde Republicaine surrounded the ringleaders. They were Hot long detained, and as goon as they were at liberty a procession was formed, and when it arrived at the headquarters of the sisters M. Pagliesi-Condi mounted the steps and began Jo harangue- the crowd. He had not gone far before the commisBaire advanced to arrest him for insulting the Government. Then ensued an exceedingly warm five minutes. The deputies resisted. The police went to the assistance of their chief. The manifestasts rallied round their leader:.', and fists were used freely. •M. Pugliesi-Coadi and several others were arrested, and cavalry dispersed the crowd. In the provinces "those who sympathise with the nuns are. giving the authorities considerable anxiety. In several communes in the department of the Pas-de-Calais the inhabitants take turns in watching day and night before the door of the school, so that on the appearance of a commissaire of the police the whole population may come at once to the rescue.

In other parts of the country the feeling IS so strong that the authorities have had to retire and postpone severe measures, and afc St. Androix, near Nines, a crowd surrounded the carriages in which the expelled nuns were leaving the district, took the horses out of the shafts, and drew the sisters back to the convent. Rome, July 23.—The Vatican was disinclined to continue the religious strife with the French Cabinet of M. Combes. The Pope had hoped that the conflict begun by M. Waldeek-Rousseau would have come to naught, and that the religious orders would have escaped scatheless. ,' France being, however, determined to continue ihe Vatican has decided to offer the keenest opposition, and orders have gone out to all the French bishops to preach opposition to the anti-clerical Government,