STAVISKY SCANDAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21912, 22 September 1934, Page 11

STAVISKY SCANDAL

DEATH OF A JUDGE SENSATIONAL REPORT RENEWAL OF THE CRISIS CABINET MEETING CALLED By Telejraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received September 21, 6.55 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 21 Despatches from Paris state that the Stavisky Commission has published a report by the police on the life of M. Albert Prince, the Appeal Court Judge who was found dead on a railway line last February. Tftis included a statement by Madame "ftt T olin, a barrister's wife, to the effect tfwit M. Prince had admitted liking to associate with the lowest types of people. Madame Nolin added that on the morning of M. Prince's death Madame Prince telephoned to jber saying: "Albert has committed suicide under a train." M. Prince's family contradicted this allegation, maintaining that he was murdered. There was other evidence alleging that M. Prince sought the company of women. The Conservatives regard the report as an attempt to besmirch M. Prince, who, they declare, was murdered at the behest of members of the Left Wing because he knew too much about Stavisky. For their part the Left Wing members maintain that the suicide theory is justified. Foreign observers incline to the view that the murder theory more easily fits the facts. The Paris correspondent of the Daily Mail states that such a sensation has been created in France by the publication of the report that the Prime Minister, M. Doumergue, has called a special meeting of the Cabinet for today to consider the document. The News Chronicle's Paris correspondent says the Prince family announce that they are preparing a statement which they declare will completely demolish the allegations contained in the report.

The body of M. Albert Prince, Judge of the Court of Appeal, and formerly chief of the public prosecutor's department, was found on the Paris railway line, close to Dijon on February 21. M. Prince, who conducted the inquiries concerning the Oustric, Madame Hanau and Stavisky frauds between 1925 and 1931, was said to have received a bogus telephone call, apparently from his family doctor, demanding his presence at his sick mother's bedside. The message was alleged to have said it would not be necessary for his wife to accompany him. M. Prince left Paris immediately for Dijon. Later his wife received telegrams purporting to have been sent by her husband, saying that his mother was making progress after an operation. Actually she was in perfect health. Platelayers with the aid of electric lamps, discovered the remains after an enginedriver had reported finding blood on his engine. The body was said to have been stabbed and the ankles to have been bound together with cord, scraps of which were found on the rails.

A handkerchief, a powder puff, a gold watch, identity papers and a purse containing £3 10s, were near the body. The belief was expressed that M. Prince had reached Dijon and been met at the station by acquaintances, with whom he had entered a motor-car. Pieces of his cuff links were found on the road and other pieces near his body. Possibly, it was said, M. Prince was killed because he knew too much about the Stavisky scandal. He was reported to have received threatening letters.