THIS IS WAR

Taranaki Daily News, 13 April 1935, Page 21 (Supplement)

THIS IS WAR

TRAGEDY OF A POOR FAMILY.

WRONG THAT CANNOT BE RIGHTED. France has been ringing with the name of Louis Moreau, who died a convicted felon in Cayenne. His conviction and punishment were one'of the bitter injustices of the war. ’ ■ ■ The Moreau family—father, mother, and two sons—were poor people living on the edge of invaded France in 1914. Then was the height of the spy mania, when in England as well as in France the most innocent persons were accused of signalling to the enemy if they showed a light at night. Everywhere the spy mania was at 1 its height, and half the War Offices of Europe were crazy. The Moreau family were so accused, and When the inquisitors found a lamp in their cottage marked . “Made, in Germany” there was no escape for them. Louis Moreau was sentenced to five years hard labour, and died in the penal colony of Cayenne. His wife was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment, and died in the prison at Rennes.' The two son’s, sentenced to five and ten years hard labour, have lived through their sentence. And now it has been discovered" that the house of the Moreaus could not be seen from the German lines, that the poor family were almost illiterate people, and had never heard of the Morse signalling alphabet; ' ® The idiocy of their accusers is made plain. Compensation of £B5O is to be made to the sons, but nothing will bring back Louis Moreau and his wife from their dishonoured graves. That is War.