FRANCE SHAKEN.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20280, 14 April 1934, Page 17 (Supplement)

FRANCE SHAKEN.

(History of Most Notorious Swindler. TRUTH ABOUT STAVISKY. 1 PARIS. March 10. AyOT since the Panama Canal scandal j ■*“ shook France to its political foun-ia-ons more than forty years ago has * -»y-thing comparable with “ L’Affalre Stavisky ” occurred in this country. ; 'A 40,000.000-dollar fraud, involving *Bme of the largest insurance comhnies in France in losses, threatening i lie taxpayers of the nation with new mposts, burst suddenly upon the oublic scene. Every day, from the moment of the first explosion occasioned by the collapse of the municipal pawnshop in the city of Bayonne—on through the Pat is riots and overthrow of the Govern- ! ment, -*the mysterious slaying of a judge, and the arrest ch Stavisky’s widow—incredible, astonishing, bewildering new elements of the drama have been making their appearance. > Enigmas throng still from man]/ phases of this singular crime. For instance. did Alexandre Stavisky, “Hand- . ? ome Alex,” the prime mover of this abulous swindle, actually.: ..commit suicide in his lonely villa al Chatsponix, as * the police assert ? Or did the police mu;-der him, fearful Nest he divulge facts of a secret liaison * between themselves and the criminal enterprise headed ? Halt* the newspapers in. Paris boldly declared he was murdered. Nor is this natio fT ,_- vv i c ie iproar limited to its r hase lone. Tit Bank of Internati* 4,,al S ments ut Basle felt impelled to an inligiant denial that Ha ** ■ Stavisky ever hi # ai flHßup do \ with it; and one' Basle . .eclared that the * ;atbrs to work to hether Stavisky, in addit : ]*£ °ther i-crimes, dared forge - fIHP in this world bank’s name. f Hungarians F KPS^-** 8Simultaneously, the **/-lan Govfernment announced Budapest that “ Handsome Air n no connection whatever wifii WB r ian officialdom. His gay parties he Hungarian capital were en€» r "■‘‘"“his own affair! But ;after it developed that Hungarian ; .istocrats had profited to the tune of 1,000,000 dollars from Stavisky’s operations in France. Because of some strange fondness this mysterious -super-criminal had t for Hungarians, he let many of them in, it appears, on the proceeds of his “ swindle in the grand manner.” Forty-eight hours after this infonna- ~ tion made its appearance, it was followed by another bit of news. “ Handsome Alex ” had been btisy forging Hungarian currency notes —possibly to recoup himself for the expense of *' let--3 ting his Hungarian friends in on the proceeds ” of the Bayonne swindle. Nearly 1000 persons have been lodged in gaol at Paris as a result of “L/Affaire Stavisky ” —most of them because of the violence of their rage over the swindle and its political tie-up. The French Royalists have seized upon the fraud to clamour for a restoration of the monarchy. The French Conservative Press made a vast to-do about the affair until it was discovered that one of the papers in ated was a Conorgan a J aris. Before the r* dust settles over this case the scandal it has let Toose will open questions ont cerning the reorganisation of the I “French Judiciary, the power of tnc [ Prefect of Police at Paris, the laws of r libel as they pertain to the French I, Press. \ Who was “ Handsome Alex ” Stavisky? How did it happen that he was able to hobnob with the highest police officials in France? To make pawns of politicians? To construct the gigantic scheme for his Bayonne swindle and yet remain immune from arrest until at last a public clamour compelled the authorities to run pun )wn? Just how did he work his last t .pic fraud? t When Stavisky’s past is-explored :the R mystery involving his last criminal can be fully appreciated. Ii At the time of his death at Chamouix f 'this distinguished-looking man had reached the age of seventy-four. He had a police record as curious as it was sinister. Stavisky, alias u Serge Alexandre,” alias “M. Petit,” was an expatriate Russian. He went to France many (years ago and became naturalised as a French citizen. A few years after, he jwas arrested for a forgery, but he escaped punishment. Between that Time and 1926 he engaged in various * criminal enterprises, which enabled him to reap a considerable fortune. Then the Empire Music Hall swindle . £t Paris. x, Estimates of Stavisky’s “ pickings,” v #p to and including this 1926 fraud, ran 1 f.as high as ten million dollars. His ac-•'-tomplices were rounded up, one after ' %nother. But no trace could be found V>f “ Handsome Alex.” At last, after months of searching, the police learned J tfcat he was in hiding at a chateau a j, few miles from Paris, near Bellville. The building was surrounded. Stavisk} r was caught, in company with his secretary and a Parisian mannequin. Th 6: trio were put in handcuffs and turned over to gendarmes, to be taken by train to La Sante prison at Paris. But Stavisky never arrived. He drugged the gendarmes, rapped them over with his handcuffs, slipped off □is shackles, and escaped. Trial Postponed Seven Years. •Vpre months had passed. He turned up *«.n court and was immediately ad- . mitted to bail. Then began an amazing chapter. Through influence in high pla-es, Stavisky managed to get his ...trial postponed for seven years! He bafeame quite a figure in Paris. On his i lakt public appearance in city, at a EV. a tre, he occupied a Box with the prefect of the Paris police, M. Chiappe, E ose dismissal figured in the chain of p* nts leading to the recent Paris riots. mf le financed the election of Deputies, p- m whom he sought favours. For jne of them, he practically endowed a fashionable tailor! To win the friendship of the editor of the radical Socialist'paper, “ La Volonte,” he is reported y the police to have paid a total of l 000,000 francs. Another editor, GasLpn Aymard, of “ La Liberte,” received ■ i.OOO francs, the police assert, on the Ividence of cheques discovered by rhum. Meantime, “ Handsome Alex’s ” masterpiece of swindling was “en train.” as the French say. He was planning it. In order to get by all legal hurdles as a preliminary, he retained in his employ, as financial expert, a councillor to the Minister of Finance for the Republic. (Continued on Page 19.)