ABANDONED ON ISLAND

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21409, 27 February 1935, Page 11

ABANDONED ON ISLAND

O SURVIVORS' STORY OF HARDSHIP , CLAIM AGAINST FRENCH COMPANY (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION —BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH—COPYRIGHT.) (Received February 26, 7.20 p.m.) PARIS, February 25. A story of slow starvation was told when two Breton fishermen and a woman brought a suit for damages against the company, La Langouste Francaise.

They gave evidence that the company proceeded to build a canning factory capable of dealing with 26,000 crayfish daily, on a sunscorched rocky island near Madagascar in 1928. Fire destroyed their food stores in 1930, and the company decided to repatriate all the workers, except five Bretons, Madame Lebrunon, wife of one of the Bretons, and the Madagascan factory superintendent. The survivors understood that when the steamer Austral left the island on March 3, 1930, she would return in three months' time with supplies. Meanwhile those left had three or four pigs, eight goats, and some tinned food. Months elapsed. fne occupants of the island were forced to eat fish, penguins, and rats. Scurvy resulted; killing three, including Madame Lebrunon's husband. A baby was born, but survived for only two months. The fourth h'.cai went fishing and did not return. When the Austral reappeared on December 6, 1930, its crew found three living skeletons, who pointed to a row of rockhewn graves. The case was adjourned.