GIRL ANARCHIST’S TRIAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1923, Page 5

GIRL ANARCHIST’S TRIAL.

A DEFIANT ATTITUDE. By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Dec. 27, 9.10 p.m. Paris, Dec. 26. The trial of Germaine Berthon ended dramatically, the girl maintaining a defiant attitude to the end. She declared: “I have nothing to add or retract.” The jury was half an hour agreeing on their verdict, which was received both with apiause and dissent. Germaine heard her acquittal with absolute impassivity, and was ordered to pay one franc damages to the victim's fam: ily and the costa of the trial. PRESS OPINIONS. MANY OFFERS OF MARRIAGE. Received Dec. 27, 9.30 p.m. London, Dec. 26. The Paris correspondent of the Morning Poßt'say.s the result was received by the bulk of French opinion with pained surprise, since Germaine not only admitted her guilt, but gloried in the crime. Speaking frankly, the vast majority of people have little sympathy for either the factions of Royalists or of anarchists, but would prefer to leave them to fight out their quarrels themselves. This, perhaps, offers some explanation for the verdict, which, to English eyes, is little short of astounding until it is remembered that in France, as in most Continental countries, political murders are still placed in a special category for which leniency is universally claimed. The Daily Express says that, after the , trial, Germaine was handed a packet containing one hundred letters, mostly offers of marriage. She is now in the country with anarchist friends.