MONK'S MURDER RECALLED

Shannon News, 22 March 1927, Page 3

MONK'S MURDER RECALLED

GRAND DUKE WHO WAS IN DISGRACE. EXILE'S*- ROMANCE AND WEDDING. A society marriage that has just taken place at Biarritz recalls a sensational event in Russia (says the 'Sunday Chronicle'). Grand Duke Dimitri Paulovitch, who has married Miss Audrey Emery, an heiress whose home is in London, was" one of the principal participants in the killing of Rasputin, the notorious Russian Monk, in Petrograd, in December, ,1916. The inside history of this affair has not yet been written, but the Tsarina put the chief blame on Prince Felix Youssoupoff. in whose palace the killing was clone, and the young Grand Duke.

-The moment the Tsarina heard of the crime she had Dimitri arrested and confined to his home, and when Tsar Nicholas, wno was at his field headquarters, heard of it he ordered him to proceed to the front in Persia, which as he was in a delicate state o* health, amounted to a death sentence. Plea to the Tsar. This disgrace caused a tremendous sensation in Russia, as Dimitri was the favourite cousin of the Tsar. Members of the Royal Family wrote the following letter to the Tsar: "May it v pleas© your Majesty, 'we, whos e signatures you will find at the bottom of this letter, urgently and strongly beg of you to consider your decision in regard to Grand Duke Dimitri Paulovitch, and show him some leniency. We know for a fact that he is physically ill and morally broken down. "Your .Majesty in probably aware of the terrible conditions in which our army finds itself placed in Persia at the present moment, and of the many Illnesses and epidemics of all kinds that are raging there. "To expose the Grand Duke to these dangers is simply compassing his ruin, because he can only come out of such a trial a physical and moral wreck, and surely the kind heart of your Majesty will take pity on a youth for whom you have had some affection in the past, and in regard to whom you have always shown yourself a kind father." The Tsar, who was under the influence of the angry Tsarina, sent them the following reply:— "No one has the right to commit a murder. I am aware that many people are suffering from qualms of .conscience, because it is not only Dimitri Paulovitch who is mixed up in this business. lam surprised.at you daring to address me in such terms." Fled to France. The young Grand Duke was sent to Persia, but he came out of this difficult campaign safely, and after his father, the Grand Duke Paul, was murdred by the Bolshevists in 1919, he fled to France.

A great Parisian dressmaker, who was no longer young, then proposed to give him a partnership in her business, in th e hope of marrying him, but he politely refused the offer. He has been living in London for the past few months, and it was there that he met Mis s Emery.