MAD KING OF ANN AM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13355, 8 December 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

MAD KING OF ANN AM.

GUNS TRAINED ON THE PALACE BY

FRENCH MINISTER. Paris;, October 17.—Thanh Thai, the. King of Annam, who recently caused several of his wives to be shot, and himself fired on one of his Ministers, is declared to be quite mad by M. Georges Leygues, French Minister in Annam. According to the Journal, a communication from M. Leygues was read at a Cabinet Council yesterday. The Minister wrote that after the murders he went to Thanh Thai's palace, but the King had retired fo liia apartments, and refused to be seen. When M. Leygues insisted Thanh Thai became, so violent that guns were trained on the palace. M. Leygues added that he has decided to dethrone the King if his insanity continues. There are several prince* of Royal blood at Annam, he says, and there should be no difficulty in finding one friendly to'the French. The King of Annam has nothing to do with the administration of the affairs of the State, which is governed by the Komat, or Cabinet Council, but merely acts as the religious head of the State. Once a year he is dressed in the sacred robes and shown to his people. Fuller details just received from Saigon show that the mad King killed one of hi* wives, had the body cooked, and compelled the members of the Court to devour it, under a, threat of instant death. Others of his wives were pulled to pieces with pincers and immersed in vats of boiling oil. An' old man who protested was shot down by' the King. On another occasion the. King ordered one of his mandarins to arrange a fight between a tigress and her cubs and a naked man. The mandarin refused, and the King shot him, afterwards despatching the tigress. He then had the two cubs brought into the grounds of the palace, where a naked woman was thrown to them and devoured alive. *

Another day the King tied thirty of his whes to posts and shot them one by- one from his palace windows with a bow and arrows.