BOMB OUTRAGE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20221, 3 February 1934, Page 1

BOMB OUTRAGE.

Express Blown Up and Three Killed. BELGRADE, January 17. An attempt to blow up the YiennaZagreb (Jugoslavia) express was made today near Brezice, thirty miles west of Zagreb, where the Little Entente Conference was scheduled to open a few hours later. One coach of the train was completely destroyed, and another was seriously damaged. The charred bodies of three persons were taken from the wreckage. A fourth passenger, a noted Vienna physician. Professor Johans Fritsch, suffered severe injuries. The train, fortunately, was not derailed, and was able to continue the journey after the wreckage was cleared away. It is generally assumed that the outrage was committed by revolutionary Croatian emigrants, who have been specially active in recent weeks in conducting violent propaganda against “ Serbian dictatorship,” and claiming Croatian autonomy. Plot to Kill King. It is an open secret that the recent visit of King Alexander and Queen Marie of Jugoslavia, which had been widely hailed as heralding a policy of reconciliation toward the Croatian opposition, was cut short because of the activities of revolutionaries. It is understood that the police got wind of a plot to make an attempt on the King's life. The Little Entente Conference, which was to open at 10 am. to-day, got under way after several hours’ delay, during which the Foreign Ministers (of Rumania, Jugoslavia and Czechoslovakia) discussed reports of the railway outrage and its possible political reverberations.