AN ACT Of PASSION.

West Coast Times, 2 May 1914, Page 1

AN ACT Of PASSION.

THE SHOOTING OF M. CALMETTE. PARTS, March 21. Uio iullowing history of the gencsk of Monday's fatal shooting i :: derived from intimate friends of M. and Mme. C aillunx. Those friends an* convinced that the art was purely a crime of passion and Unit the political surroundings *v. n* only incidental. lids in i v be taken as foreshadowing the line ot -li-le/hs- ty1 1 ; 11 the case ceaehthe assizes. It lias been wills-|K-red lor weeks that the traditional eheivhez !.a lemnie is applicable to tin. Calmette-I 'aillaux campaign. In order t„ nnder.statuf Mmo. Caillatix s state ~f mind it is necessary u, retnll some of Caill,-nix's liistorv 'He wasan mllnemial politician and Mims-'u-'n' r'! 1 ; 1 '"' 0 "•■is 10 in M. H-aldcek-Ronssoaii s famous .Ministry. ■ nine,* and politics did not conipl,,telv Wl Ins hie. tor m addition to inarrvlmmi times and divorcing two wives. Ills name had been Connected with <ece nil women „f high .sociely.

l-OVK AFFAIRS OP CAILLAUX, I'or eaeh divorce iii wliieh CaJliaux ■tUtml. was followed ,. v , lis n hj. woman w,tl, who,n J,e |,gd al- ■ mother s -side. M. mod, st clerk n. the Ministry of Fine W ' Since /' u l!,! , " s divorce he lias hoen a„I'ointed excise officer at a v,|, ' 1 , CB-10 a year ? " f

himiusl hj that tl,e I, .nous- letter signed " Ton ,)„ ” f rom - . C.iillaux H-;,s .'idflros.vd. Cailtinix and Mine, Dupre both secured divorces jn l.|oo and shortly were married, lint oto m M CaiManx's case s eem s to hare been unable to withstand the conjugal bond for within two years he became deeply enamoured of the pretty wife of the well-known writer and lecturer I eo Claretie. nephew of the late j„!es Ularetie, win, was dir,.,.tor of the Comedie Franoaise.

SECOND DOUBLE DIVOKUE. Parisian society soon learned of M Caillaux'-s new iiasrin, which led to a second double divorce. M. Cailhnix, who bad decided to marry -Mine. Claret ie. had jnmil trouble trying to persuade bis '.life to bring an action for divorce. She loved him sincerely, and lelt the dcepe.-t chagrin at losing him. M. Claivtie procured a divorce at the end i,I 1910 and Caillanx got a divorce early in 1912. M. Caillanx and Mine. Claretie were married in that same year. Both divorce o.Tses were kept as secret as the Paris courts know well how to do.

Letters from Mine. Claretie to M, Caillanx were read before the tribunal during the pleadings of the divorce ease. M. CaiManx's letters to the woman he loved often contained political confidences. He recounted his ideas, plans, tactics, and ambitions, and sketched his forthcoming specch-

CALMETTE BEGINS CAMPAIGN. Six weeks ago Calmette commenced his campaign, Mnie. Caillanx shared her husband's confidence, a s she bad previously shared his hopes and ambitions. Hie question is, whence came the documents which fed tile campaign, of which the objects were undoubtedly political. So far as M. Calmette was concerned, be wanted to drive Caillanx out of politics forever, kill the income tax and the taxation of rents, and prevent the return at 11 it* coming elections of a Social Radical Ministry; which at heart is hostile to the three years’ military service.

There is no doubt that Calmette obtained these documents from different sources, but M. Caillanx and Mine Caillaux were firmly convinced that he obtained most of them, notably the “Ton do ” fetter, directly or indirectly from tbe previous Mmo Caillanx, who, in accordance with French law, resumed her maiden name and was known as Mme. Dueydoii. This lady was an intimate fried (if Mine, Marcel llallolt, one of the greatest- beauties of Paris and the wife of a well-known playwright. Mme Ballot was an intimate friend of M. Calmette. Mine. Ballot and .the present Time. Caillanx were also close friends until about a year ago, when there was an estrangement because if. Caillanx appeared to his wile to have been overattracted by the beautiful Mme, Ballot who-was once a member of the, Comedie Francaise.

HR AMINO-ROOM SNUB. Tile hostility of Mme, Ballot and Mine. Caillnux was open tall; in Baris snpiptv from the day when they nipt in a drawing-room and -Mmp C’aillaux turned her head without saluting Mme. Ballot, who was coming toward her hands outstretched. M. Caillaux rightly or wrongly attributed the feroeitv of Calmette's campaign to the influence of Mmo. Ballot, and he often reproached Mmp Caillaux for not remaining on good terms with such an important personage. “See what your jealousy has done,’’ he Would sav. “It .is she who has provoked Calmette against me, she who obtained my former wife s letter.

Tliis reproach addl’d to the attacks of which Iter husband was daily the object, and which worked him into a hi.dilv nervous state and drove lus wile to'Vspcration, which was no more than natural when a wife worships her husband, as Mine. Caiikuix. ' She became obsessed with the belief that since M. Calmette had already published one nrivate letter hje _would publish others written by herself and photographs of letters, which, even 'f tto were nut originals, wvve in Mm.. ■ u.J ' 11 DENIAL COAIF.S TO LATE. When she read in the Figaro that new ■„, d more convincing documents agam- ■ her husband were about to appear die did not think of the report of 1 u - he Prosecutor Fahre in the Henri RochJ to swindling ease, but believed that her own jotters were about to he prm - ~1. and this drove Iter to attempt In prevent their publication at any cost. The ‘'Figaro” has since denied that it intended to print any further letters hut Mme. Cailhtux had already killed Al Calmette because she lover her husband. because she did not wish her husband to ronroaoh her again with rumj„„ him bv her jealousy, and because she imagined that if these letters were published .CaiUans would cense to lore !l Her only means to prevent this publication was by a crime, hence her friends argue that it was .a crime passionel. They were unwilling to take any steps pnbliclv to establish the claim from Mmeos Caillaux’s point of view until her viyCm bid been buried, after

which they were ready to throw Ugh on many points which have liitert, hit'll dark.