FEMALE CONSPIRACY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15349, 9 July 1913, Page 9

FEMALE CONSPIRACY.

TO SET FIRE TO LONDON.

DISCOVERED BY POLICE.

BRIBES FOR AVIATORS. WHO REVEAL THE PLOT. BOMBS FROM AEROPLANES. INCENDIARIES AT WORK. £47,500 DAMAGE IN A MONTH. By Telegraph.— Association.— (Received July 8, 6 p.m.) London, July 7. The Standard asserts that an elaborate suffragette plot has been discovered by the police. The women are said to have intended to eclipse all previous efforts, by simultaneously igniting Government offices and leading business houses all over London.

Experts were consulted with regard to the preparation and handling of vast quantities of dangerous materials, which were removed from place to place to allay suspicion.

Thousands of tubes of phosphorus and other combustible materials were seized when the plot was discovered. "* • Offer to Frenchmen. The Standard further states that the leaders of the movement offered rich rewards to certain French aviators if they would cross the Channel and drop bombs in London simultaneously with the fires. The airmen immediately communicated with the British officials in Paris. The Daily Mail asserts that the militant suffragette conspiracy as an effective organisation has been crushed by the " Cat and Mouse Act." The movement is now without funds and to all intents and purposes without a leader. Explosion at Liverpool. Gunpowder was placed yesterday in an iron pipe and exploded in a subterranean passage at the Liverpool Exchange, some damage being caused.

Southport Pier was soaked with paraffin and ignited last night, the blaze being extinguished only after the shelter on the pier had been destroyed.

Suffragette literature was found on the pier.

The losses by fire in the United Kingdom during the past six months are estimated at £1,675,000, while losses attributed to the suffragettes in the last month are put down at £47,500.

WELSH CHAPELS FIRED.

WOMEN FREED FROM BLAME. London, July 7. A man named William Ross has been arrested on a charge of setting fire to Salem Chapel and a number of other chapels in Wales. The collection boxes were robbed, and the fires are said to have been started in order to cover the traces of the thefts.

The suffragettes were at first blamed.