TAMMANY TOUCH
COMMUNIST MAYOR CHARGED. PARIS, March 16. The trial has opened at Aix-en-Prov-ence of what is known as “the case of the Fantastic Municipality.” Esprit Pioch, the Communist Mayor of the i village of Saintes Marie de Lamer, is charged with having misappropriated public funds amounting to several million francs. Sixteen alleged accomiplices, including the local gravedigger, are similarly charged. It is alleged that men long since dead had been maintained on the registers J and received payment for services ren- [ dered. A fisherman stated that he re-1 ceived substantial rewards for ridding i the shores of imaginary monsters. A young woman entitled “official . typist” had never touched a typewriter. She visited the Town Hall only to draw her salary. Many grandiose schemes were started with the object of making the village a rival to Cannes and Nice. Eight years of Pioch’s rule had increased the local budget tenfold. The Minister for the Interior last year dismissed Pioch, whom the villagers promptly re-elected, but his spectacular career continued only for a little longer before his arrest.
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Bibliographic details
Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 82, 7 April 1934, Page 11
Word Count
177TAMMANY TOUCH Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 82, 7 April 1934, Page 11
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