FATAL ALTERCATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19916, 9 April 1928, Page 9

FATAL ALTERCATION.

TRAGEDY AT GENEVA. CHAUFFEUR SHOOTS BUTLER. LONDON, March 26. An altercation arose at the Bellevu® Villa of Baron Paul de Hervesjr, the Hungarian representative to the League of Nations, between the baron's half-cast® negro John Coates, and an Hungarian butler, Charles Szabo, says the Geneva correspondent of the Daily News. Szabo told Coates to refer the dispute to Baron de Hervesy in his room. Coates was about to' knock when Szabo flung open the door and dealt him several blows with a cudgel, which would have been fatal but for the negro's thick skull and woolly hair. Coates rushed to his own room and seized a revolver. He fired four shots at Szabo, one lodging below the heart. S#abo died on the way to hospital. Coates was arrested, but Baron de Hervesy, whose lawyer is defending him, says that he may be released if it is proved that he acted in self-defence, The affair has placed the baron in an awkward predicament. He was at the theatre when Szabo died. He said to-day: "My footman is dead, my chauffeur is imprisoned, the chambermaid is in hospital, the cook's knees are too tremulous to stand,, find the gardener is incapable of work." Tile chambermaid, Theresa Rothammer. aged 30, is suffering from shock. Apparently her preference for Coates incensed Szabo, who was tall and handsome. He determined to square accounts with a lead-weighted life-preserver. The girl, hearing shots, rushed up the stairs, and met Szabo descending, armed with a revolver. It is not clear whether Coates fired all the shots.