REVOLVER FIRED AT FRENCH COMTE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 66, 19 March 1937, Page 7

REVOLVER FIRED AT FRENCH COMTE

SERIOUS WOUND IN GROIN WOMAN SHOOTS POINT-BLANK SENSATION ON RAILWAY STATION. ALLEGATION OF THWARTED LOVE. (By Telegraph- P tests Association—Copy tight) PARIS, March 18. While waiting on the Gare du Nord platform for a train to Brussels, Comte de Chambrun, former French Ambassador to Italy, was shot in the groin by a smartly dressed young woman, who drew a revolver from her handbag. The woman was arrested. Comte de Chambrun was taken to hospital and operated on. Received March 18, 8.33 p.m. LONDON. March 18. The Daily Mail’s Paris correspondent says that Comte Chambrun’s assailant is known by the pen-name of “Madame de Fontage.” Her real name is Madame de la Ferriers, a former wife of a Deputy Prefect for the Provinces. She is described as a strikingly beautiful and gifted woman with a wide circle of friends in French and Italian diplomatic circles. She is aged 30. The shooting occurred five minutes before the train to Brussels was due to start. She fired three times at point-blank range. Comte Chambrun did not fall but turned quietly to the police who rushed forward, saying: “Arrest that woman!”

Doctors say he is not vitally injured and his life is not in danger. The Daily Telegraph’s Paris correspondent says that Madame Fontange told an examining magistrate that she regretted having failed to kill Comte Chambrun, whom she accused of making remarks about her in Rome and preventing her approaching a very high personage whom she had previously interviewed for her paper. The Daily Telegraph’s correspondent adds: “It is stated that she had fallen passionately in love with this personage.” Comte Chambrun, who is aged 62, was appointed Ambassador in Rome in 1933. He retired last year and is a member of one of the oldest families in France. It is alleged that the woman told the police: “Comte Chambrun caused me to lose the love of a man who is too well known to be mentioned. I confided certain things to Comte Chambrun, trusting on his friendship not to repeat them. He has broken my confidence and he has lost me the love of a’man who really loved me.” The Daily Mail’s Paris correspondent says that sensational reports are circulating in Paris about the circumstances leading up to the shooting.

“I learn that police inquiries have assumed an international character,” he says. “A friend said that Madame Fontage and Comte Chambrun had known each other some time. They met for the first time in Rome, where Madame Fontage went a year ago, as representative of a Paris evening newspaper, to obtain interviews of which she obtained a number, including one with Signor Mussolini.” Le Matin reports Madame Fontage as saying: “Comte Chambrun made me lose the affection of a great Italian statesman.”