PLOT TO DESTROY REPUBLIC

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20894, 25 November 1937, Page 7

PLOT TO DESTROY REPUBLIC

GRAVE OUTLOOK IN FRANCE TENSION EASED BY OFFICIAL REPORT ACTIVITIES OF FRENCH ROYALISTS United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright PARIS, November 23. The anxiously awaited official communique which was Issued to-night declares that the Cagoulards planned to overthrow the French Republic by civil war, establish a dictatorship, and then restore the monarchy. “Searches have established,” adds the official communique, "that -we are confronted by a secret military organisation entirely copying the lines of an army and comprising a general staff,, command of areas, divisions, brigades and regiments, showing that it had been designed for civil war.” AMAZING REVELATIONS WELL-LAID PLANS FOR REVOLUTION United Press Association—By Electra Telegraph—Copyright (Received November 24, 5.5 p.m.) PARIS, November 24. The Minister of the Interior (M. Dormey) has issued a statement saying: “The searchers have revealed plans to attack Ministeries and arranged for the wholesale importation of arms and also material intended for the production of false identity papers and arms transport permits. The police found papers stolen from the military bureau, from where the plotters learned the quantity of materials in the possession of the regular army units and the names of the commanding officers.” The Cagoulards had a list of the Paris houses with double entrances, and a precise plan of the Paris sewers, tracing the routes leading to the Chamber of Deputies, maps tracing the lines leading to the homes. of the Socialist Deputies and offices of the Left Wing newspapers. The police found a facsimile of the signature of Certz, and facsimile signatures of certain Ministers and members of the Chamber of Deputies, who would have been arrested after the signal for the uprising. The Cagoulards planned to seize the arsenals and municipal buses and convert them into armoured cars. The preparations have been broken up, thanks to the vigilance of the Government and Republican Institutions. The guilty will be severely punished.

The French democracy is now assured that any criminal action against the Republic can be crushed. The police raided chateaus, including the Chateau de Love at Chinnes belonging to the late scent king, Francis Coty, and once owned by Madame Dubarry, on the top of the strategic hill dominating Paris. The chateau contained a mysterious underground fortress and a network of concreted bomb proof passages and vaults, a telephone exchange, and electrical machinery built by foreign workmen, who have been regularly replaced every fortnight. Five more Cagoulards have been arrested in Paris. The police net has dragged in an organisation of 2000 conspirators at Toulouse, allegedly backed by industrialists. Arms and concrete trenches were discovered. Cagoulard plans were found in the flat of Eugene de Lecle, director and consulting engineer of the Penhoet Dockyards Company, builders of the Normandie, who is at present visiting Italy. De Loncie’s brother Henri has been arrested at Nice. FRENCH ROYALISTS ACTIVE NO STATEMENT TO MAKE United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright PARIS, November 23. The Comte de Paris, son of the Due de Guise, Pretender to the French throne, has arrived In Brussels by air from Switzerland. He refused to make any statement. ACTIVITIES OF SPIES ARRESTS ON FRANCO-GERMAN FRONTIER United Press Association—By Electrto Telegraph—Copyright PARIS, November 23. Six alleged spies have bee’ arrested in the village of Huningue on the Franco-German frontier. It Is alleged that they have confessed that they handed to agents at Freiburg information about the strength and disposition o. troops on the French frontier. Huningue is regarded as the “Achilles Heel” of the Maginot Line, as it is unfortified under the treaty made after the Franco-Prussian war, which was not annulled by the Treaty of Versailles.