DEFEAT OF M. HERRIOT

Hokitika Guardian, 5 July 1929, Page 8

DEFEAT OF M. HERRIOT

MUNICIPAL ELECTION SURPRISE

PARIS, May 16

‘Communist election methods were strikingly illustrated yesterday at tho little town of Rivesaltes, near Perpignan, in the south of France. The scrutineers having declared that the Moderates had won the election by 170 votes, M. lloujon, the retiring Communist mayor, had the counting table overturned and all the ballotpapers burned. He then declared that the Communist list had a majority of 30, and that he and his (friends were duly re-elected. magistrate and gendarmes summoned from Perpignan, however, found the original tally-sheets signed by the s scrutineers, and arrested the mayor and his secretary on a charge of electoral fraud.

M. Harriot, the ex-Premier, as the result of the Socialists having gained a 'majority on the Municipal Council of Lyons, will have to resign the post of mayor, which he has held for 20 years.

BOMBS AND SHOTS

MARSEILLES, Way 16

Marseilles had a sleepless night last night. From nightfall almost until dawn there were fusillades of revolver shots and the bursting of bombs, while the streets . --re packed with crowds of demonstrators. It was the Marseilles way df celebrating the announcement of the municipal election results. • 'The entire Socialist list, headed by |)r Flaissieres, Mayor of Marseilles, was was returned. PARIS, May 16. M. Herriot declared: “I am beaten. I will retire. No flowers or wreaths.” M. Herriot, who is 56, was Minister of Public Works from December 1916 to March 1917 and after the war became president of the Federation of Radical and Radical-Socialist Parties, resigning in 1926. He was Premier 1924-25, and Minister of Public Instruction until last November.