WIFE AS AVENGER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15562, 20 March 1914, Page 7

WIFE AS AVENGER.

THE.FRENCH SENSATION. , MINISTER'S UNPOPULARITY. "DOWN WITH CAILLAUX." DEBATE IN THE CHAMBER. IMPORTANT PAPER READ. ANGRY FEELINGS ROUSED. PARIS DEMONSTRATIONS. SOLDIERS IN READINESS. By Telegraph Association Copyright. (Received March 19, 9.40 p.m.) Paeis, March 19. Before shooting M. Calmette, editor of the Figaro, Mme. Caillaux, it appears, had taken counsel of her friends. Finding that she was unlikely to secure satisfaction by legal process, she then took the law into her own hands. When M. Caillaux heard that the magistrate was going to detain his wile, he remarked: "1 regret that M. Calmette is severely hurt, but I cannot express disapproval of my wife's deeds." Hundreds of students assembled at the Figaro office after the tragedy shouting: "Down with Caillaux, the robber." The newspapers comment on the crime with almost indecent ferocity. For some the importance of the affair lies in sweeping M. Caillaux from power. Document Causes Uproar. The debate in the Chamber of Deputies yesterday proved the stormiest since the Dreyfus case. M. Dolahaye moved a resolution calling upon the Government to dismiss the Procurator-General who yielded to the pressure of M. Monis, the exPrime Minister, and allowed Rochette to abscond, thus preventing a scandal involving M. Caillaux. M. Bartho&, who was the head of the last short-lived Administration, read the document, the threatened publication of which is alleged to have prompted Mme. Caillaux to shoot M. Calmette. The document was the Public Prosecutor's protest against Ministerial pressure to obtain immunity for Rochette. The reading caused a great sensation. M. Ceccaldi, a friend of M. Caillaux, accused M. Barthou of being M. Caillaux's assassin, and being inflamed by political animosity. Private Letters Seized. M. Monis denied 'the Procurator's allegation and demanded an inquiry into the history of the document and how M. Barthou had obtained it from the archives. The motion was ultimately withdrawn in favour of one ordering the prolongation of. the Rochette commission of inquiry. The police have seized documents in M. Calmette's office which are reported to include private letters from M. Caillaux to his wife before their marriage. M. Caillaux has handed the police a letter written by his wife which he found on the night of the tragedy, in which she says: "When you receive this, I shall have executed justice." Maitre Labori, the defender of Dreyfus, will act on behalf of Mme. Caillaux. Mounted police are patrolling the main streets to prevent demonstrations. Seething With Excitement. The excitement surpasses the Steinheil case, and almost equals that of the Dreyfus affair. It is intensified by M. Caillaux's efforts to rally the Radical forces riven by ex-Premier Briand and M. Caillaux's success in regaining personal supremacy in the party after the Congo disclosures. M. Calmette's articles were unequalled in bitterness since Zola's " J'Accuse." When the shooting was reported on the boulevards large and excited crowds paraded up and down until the early hours of the morning. Scuffles With Pol':e. The Action Francaise, a Royalist | newspaper yesterday, summoned the Camelots du Roi to demonstrate against M. Caillaux. Many scuffles with the police followed, the tables and chairs in many cafes being broken. A series of demonstrations followed outside M. Caillaux's house. The Intransigeant states that M. Calmette showed a friend letters from the Foreign Office archives proving that M. Caillaux was formerly in secret correspondence with a foreign Government concerning the Congo, and that M. Calmette had hitherto suppressed this lest it should lead to a diplomatic incident. Victim's Final Appeal. M. Calmette always carried these letters in his pocketbook, and in his last moment* frequently appealed to his friends to guard his pocketbook. Mme. Caillaux occupies a large cell in the St. Lazare Prison, has a maid to dress her and wait on the table, while a restaurant supplies her meals. M. Rewoult succeeds M. Caillaux as Minister for Finance. Radicals Demoralised. The Radical Party is demoralised, and there is a growing clamour for the resignation of M. Monis. The public is discussing why the Public Prosecutor's letter was not submitted to the Rochette Commission, and why M. Barthou and M. Briand kept the letter by them for three the commission, finally handing it to M. Calmette as his deadliest weapon against M. Caillaux.

The Rochette Commission has now been invested with judicial powers. It is the first commission that has been invested with such high powers during the Third Republic. Owing to the unrest, the troops are being confined to barracks, in readiness for any trouble. Measures have been taken to guard the house of M. Caillaux, the prison of his wife, and Parliament House during the funeral on Friday.' DREYFUS AND STEINHEIX, CASES. Colonel Dreyfus, whose case is referred to above, was sent to the lie du Diable on a charge of high '< reason. M. Zola's famous letter. "J'Accuse," defending Dreyfus and demanding a new trial, appeared after Dreyfus had been almost tour years in prison. This set the ball rolling, and the Dreyfus case w%s submitted for revision. Although there was almost conclusive proof of his innocence, he was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison. A pardon was granted him, however, a few days later by President Loubet. Mme. SteinhMl will be remembered a? the central fig ire *n the amazing murder mystery with which all France was convulsed in the latter part of ISO** She was finally acquitted of the char • ,v----ing murdered her husband, a ive.. • m painter, and her step-mother.