THE LYONS MAIL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1330, 6 January 1912, Page 13

THE LYONS MAIL.

ROBBERS' HAUL FROM INDIAN EXPRESS. ENTRY BY THE ROOF. One of the most daring train robberies on record was perpetrated on Friday night, November 17, when three of tho vans of the Indian mail train running 'in connection with tho Peninsular express to Brindisi was looted. The robbers devoted their attention mainly to the vans containing the Indian and Far Eastern mails. The mail bags for Egypt, India, China, and other parts of tho East always contain important consignments of money, gold and silver, jewellery, precious stones, and even securities. At this season, in consequence of the Durbar and of Christmas, the registered letters are numerous, lit is stated, however, that the really valuable packages were not dispatched till November 18. In any case, the letters sent from Loudon on November 17 were in a later train. The train concerned is made up solely of mail vans. It leaves tho Gare du Lyon, Paris, at 8.45 p.m. On Friday night (November 17) it consisted of four closed and padlocked vans with mails for India ana the Far East, printed matter and newspapers, the Marseilles and the Italian mails respectively, and five sorting-vans, in which 25 postal employees were busy throughout the ntn. On arriving at Macon at 3 a.m. on the Saturday one of these employees was sent with a bag to the Marseilles van, which lie found in the wildest disorder.

As the halt at Macon is very brief, the express continued its journey to Lyons, an hour away. Closer examination was made; then it was discovered that the three remaining clos&l vans (the Italian mail van having been slipped at Dijon) had been rifled, though the seals and locks were intact. Of the 300 'bags 88 had been ripped open. The floors were littered with torn envelopes, letters, empty cardboard boxes, and the like. In the Indian van 18 of the 120 bags had beeii plundered. Apparently tho thieves had had ample time, and carefully selected only what seemed of most . value. Finger marks, traces of footsteps, and greases from a candle wero found. A broken pane of glass in tho windows of tho raised "look-out" shows hoiv the robbers gained admission. This look-out is a vaulted portin at the end of tho van, raised above the roof so that the guard within can stand on stop, and look through a window in the direction the train is going. The generally accepted theory is that the men clambered on the roof of the van at tho Gare du Lyon oil tho side away from the platform. As the express rushed at fifty miles an hour through the. night, they crawled with incredible daring along the top of the van and squeezed through the narrow window of the look-out. They then entered tho van without breaking ,the locks or external seals. They had nearly two hours to work in at leisure, for the first stop after Paris is Laroche, ninety-sis miles away. Just before Laroche the line was under repair, and the train slowed down, so that they could have dropped off and escaped into the night. The police are said to incline to tho theory that the robbery is the work of one thoroughly acquainted with tho mail trains. In one of the vans it was found that a ventilation shaft had been opened with a special instrument known only to the railway employees It is thought that the stolen bags wore thrown through this trap on tho line and picked up by confederates following in a motor-car. A high official of the General Post Office (London) stated that no English mails for India and tho East were affected.