FRENCH EXPRESS DERAILED.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18584, 3 June 1930, Page 9

FRENCH EXPRESS DERAILED.

Several Passengers Killed.

TRAIN-WRECKER AT WORK. (Unltad Press Association—By Ksetr’. i Telegraph—Copyright.) PARIS, June 1. At Montreau eight were killed and 30 injured when the Paris-Marseilles express was derailed, the four leading coaches of which were smashed to pieces. The rescuers were obliged to saw through the metal roofs to extricate the bodies. The disaster was caused by a small truck, which the Minister of Public Works, after inquiry, considers was deliberately placed on the line. The derailment occurred when the express was travelling at 50 miles an hour. GRAVE SUSPICION IN FRANCE. EARLY FEARS NOT SUSTAINED. (United Press Association—By Electrle Telegraph —Copyright.) (Received June 2, 9.50 p.m.) PARIS, June 2. The fact that M. Tardieu was travelling to Dijon to address a luncheon, at which there were 1500 guests,* caused an early belief that the Montereau disaster was due to the desire to wreck the Prime Minister’s train.

It is still believed that the trolley was purposely placed on the line, but as M. Tardieu passed three and a half hours before the accident, the belief that M. Tardieu was an intended victim, has been abandoned. Speaking at Dijon, M. Tardieu did not reply to Signor Mussolini’s recent speeches, except to use the cryptic phrase: “France to-day needs neither to worry nor to brag.” Since 1918 France has not played the game of hegemony which led Prince Bismark and his successors to commit excesses, which resulted in defeat in 1918.