HELD IN GAOL FOR A YEAR WITHOUT TRIAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19013, 7 March 1930, Page 1

HELD IN GAOL FOR A YEAR WITHOUT TRIAL.

HANAU ON HUNGER STRIKE AS PROTEST. (United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) PARIS, March 6. It has been revealed that Madame Hanau, who figured in extraordinary financial operations in 1925, has been hunger-striking. She declares that she will starve herself to death unless her case is investigated. Now she has refused to take even water. The case is an instance of how long a person can be kept in prison in France without trial. Madame Hanau was arrested on December 5, 1928, and the last mention of the case cabled to New Zealand was a magisterial inquiry on January 6, 1929. Known as a financial wizard who had operated one of the most gigantic get-rich-quick schemes ever devised, Madame Marthe Hanau was arrested early in December of 1928 with her divorced husband, Lazare Bloch. The news spread very rapidly, and panicstricken investors rushed to the sumptuous marble-fronted offices from which Madame, with Bloch and a staff of 250 clerks, had directed enormous financial operations. Among the victims were deputies, priests, nuns and widows of officers. When the scandal was broached in the French Chamber, the Minister of Finance gave an assurance that justice would be done. Madame, besides running the “ Gazette de Franc,” formed five share-investing companies, and had 4000 agencies in France and abroad. Seven members of the Government, including MM. Poincare, Briand, Loucheur and Leygues, were involved through articles that they were alleged to have contributed to the “ Gazette de Franc” or the “Gazette des Nations,” though few believed that they were being exploited. In all eighteen arrests were made in connection with the case, and it was said that several suicides were attributed to losses incurred through the concern.