PEACE MENACED

Taranaki Daily News, 27 November 1934, Page 7

PEACE MENACED

PROTEST BY HUNGARY “VICTIM OF ACCUSATIONS” EXPOSED TO CALUMNIES YUGOSLAVIAN COMPLAINT FEAR OF CONSEQUENCES By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 10 p.m. Geneva, Nov. 25. The Hungarian representative at the League of Nations Council has presented a Note requesting that the Yugoslav complaint about Hungarian complicity in the murder of King Alexander at Marseilles be considered at an extraordinary meeting of the Council next week to enable a speedy investigation. The Note points out that Hungary has been the victim of accusations aimed at compromising the nation’s good name. If it continues to be exposed to various incitements and calumnies there might be serious consequences to the peace of the world.

Further accusations against Hungary are contained, in a Yugoslav memorandum based on the evidence of terrorists who attempted the assassination of King Alexander at Zagreb in 1933, and the confessions of Jelka and Podogorolec, two women who lived for several years with Pertchetch, one of the organisers of the Marseilles crime. The accusations include an allegation that when terrorists crossed the frontier Major Klan, a Hungarian, usually interviewed them. Major Klan frequently visited the Yankapuszta camp, where terrorists were trained, practising first at a target which was a life-sized figure of King Alexander. CONFESSION BY PLOTTER. The evidence includes a confession by Stepan Petrovich, who was sentenced to death at Belgrade in April. Describing life at Yankapuszta, Petrovich, referring to the harsh discipline, gave an instance of the execution of a Bosnian who was suspected of treachery. Petrovich was sent to a distilleiy on a farm where he was given a dagger and told to give the first blow. One man felled the Bosnian, Petrovich stabbed him in the ribs and a third man stabbed him in the heart. The-body was flung into a distillery furnace. Although it is stated that many conspirators’ trails led to Italy from Hungary the memorandum does not refer to Italy in order to avoid complications, but it is alleged that if Italy attempts to champion Hungary the fullest information of Italian complicity will be produced.

It is semi-officially stated at Rome that Italy will support Hungary’s request that the League immediately discuss the Yugoslav Note. The situation is regarded as delicate, but it is unlikely that there will be serious complications. Herr Eckhardt, Hungary’s representative at the League of Nations, when interviewed by the Daily Mail’s Geneva correspondent, said that before his departure from Yugoslavia King Alexander was sentenced to death by a meeting of Croat terrorists in Belgium. The sentence was published in a Croat revolutionary organ in Belgium, which was available throughout Europe, but it was apparently ignored by the police of all countries.