HOCQUARD'S STATEMENT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 47, 24 February 1880, Page 2

HOCQUARD'S STATEMENT.

My name is Augaste Hocquard, single, and formerly a resident of Paris. I am a lithographic printer by trade, and worked at it io France and in England— in the latter country for four years, with Day and Sons, of London, and subsequently for three months at Birmingham io 1863. During my etoy ia England I took an active part and interest in the movements of the London Radical Clubs, as being to some extent in harmony with my Republican principles. Having made some money I returned to France, and remained there till the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. On the commencement of the war I was made a lieutenant in the Garde Nationale, and served throughout the first siege of Paris against the Prussians. On the organisation of the Commune I threw In my lot with that movement, under the belief that it would give to Paris and to France those political rights of which they had been deprived under the Second Empire. When MacMahon'a victorious troops poured int? Paris, I and a number of other Communists made our vnj out of the ciy, but were captured at Sevres. Here a line regiment wers engaged in shooting the Communists in batcheß. The commandant did not seem to have much heart for his work, for aftar several squads of prisoners (six in each) had been sho", and another squad had been put up against the wall (of whom I was one) the commandant ordered bis men to cease firing, spying, " I have shot enough to- Jay," and directed the survivors to fall in under a guard. I was sent with Rochefort and other prisoners to Fort Boyard, at La Rochelle, and departed to New Caledonia in 1871, by the ship La Guerriere. Some of my present comrades were sent out in the same year, and others later, some ss late as 1875. Soon after my arrival in New Caledonia, Rochefort waaaentout, and placed at the Isle of Pines where I was assigned to him as a servant. Rochefort' a escape, was managed very easily, as I have reason to know, being privy to it. The person employed on the missshn of attempting his rescue took an opportunity of seing me and said, "I have come here to get away a certain person — only one — and this ie be" (pulling out of his breast a photo). I looked, and saw that it was Rochefort. Steps were at once taken to aid Rochefort ia escaping, plans arranged, and a nnmber of letters parsed to him for delivery from some of the leading Communists in Noumea to their friends in France. Of course, there was • lady in the case as usual— -the wife of a member of th,e N,ationa.l Assembly, who had a soft spot |n hqr fyearf; tqr M.. Rochefort, and she succeeded., through her husband, in getting natters made so easy that RocWort'a flight was a matter of little difficulty. A good deal of money was spent over it, however, of which the person 'possessing the;

photograph pulled off a cool thousand. With regard to the treatment of political deportes at the Isle of Pints, there is little to complain about. Eaoh person gets daily I^-lba of excellent bread, £lb of fresh meat, also t«i, sugar, coffee, pepper, salt, rinegtr, mustard. In addition, the Government pay for all labor done by them, and they are allowed a plot of land to raise vegetables for personal or family use.

Nine years imprisonment does not seem to have broken M. Hocquard's spirits, and he appears to possess as largely as ever that elan which characterises the French soldier. He had embibeJ extreme Democratic principles and, when asked whether the moderate Republic now existing under Grevy would not be satisfactory to himself and friende, said, " No, it gives an instalment only of that full and frse exercise of political freedom which Frenchmen ought to enjoy," and he is just as ready, as at Sevres of yore, to put his back to the wall, and shed his blood for (he Rights of M»n and la belle France I