FRENCH STRIKE MURDER.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1054, 17 February 1911, Page 5

FRENCH STRIKE MURDER.

——+ . •. DURAND RELEASED. By Telegraph—Press Association—CoDjriebt •»..February.. J5. . Tli? release I 'Of' D\itand;' sentenced ; to death in connection with the murd?r of, a sentence' being afterwards commuted; has been ordered. . A CURIOUS CASE. Durand was sentenced to death at Rouen in November last for . his share in the ; murder of a . blackleg, named Donge. The verdict was violently opposed by the Socialist? .and.tratles unionists., • As they appear., from. the. trial, the ci rcumstances; aro~ not in favour' of ,"Duv rand. It was" alleged- that ; two-members of the Coal-heavere' Union, out of ■ personal spite, had denounced Donge, the murdered man, •as a strike-breaker. The secretary at the following meeting, afterthe men's feelings had been worked up to a high pitch, proposed a vote in favour of the-assassination of Donge. The vote was carried, and shortly afterwards Donge was waylaid and brutally killed. Three members of the union,. Who were present at the murder,, were sentenced to long terms of penal servitude. The jury found Durand guilty of complicity, put were. evidently surprised .when the judgo passed sentence of death upon him, and they signed an appeal for, Presidential clemency. The murdered man's wife, in a letter to her counsel, published by "L'Humanite," pleaded for a reprieve in favour of the secretary. She said that she had; to take part in the trial and claim damages for her children's sake,' but she did not want to'have any share in the'.death sentence passed upon Durand—a sentence which she, could not even understand, as the tradn union secretary personally took 110 part in the dastardly deed. Being herself a working woman. Mme. Donge said that she remembered her duty/ to the working, classes, who w ; ere struggling against such odds to obtain "alittlo more bread and a little less harsh treatment." , • i ===== . I