Frenchmen Excited.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 75, 19 March 1914, Page 5

Frenchmen Excited.

THE FIGARO SENSATION.

A POLITICAL UPHEAVAL. [By Electric Telegraph—Copyright] [United Press Association.] (Received 8.5 a.m.) Paris, March 18. Madame Caillaux had previously taken counsel of her friends, but finding she was unlikely to secure satisfaction by legal process took the law into her own hands. When M. Caillaux heard that the Magistrate was going to detain his wife he said: “I regret that M. Calmette was severely hurt, but I cannot express disapproval of her deeds.”

Hundreds of students assembled at the Figaro office and shouted; “Down with Caillaux, the robber!” Newspapers comment upon the crime with almost indecent ferocity. For some, the importance lies in sweeping M. Caillaux from power. The debate in the Chamber of Deputies was the stormiest since the Dreyfus case.

M. Delahaye moved a resolution calling on the Government to dismiss the Procurator-General, who yielded to M. Monis’s (Minister of Marine) pressure, and allowed M. Rochette to abscond, thus preventing a scandal involving M. Caillaux. , M. Barthou (cx-Prime Minister) read a document and threatened to publish same, which alleged that he had prompted Madame Caillaux to commit the deed. The document was the public prosecutor’s protest against Ministerial pressure to obtain immunity for 31. Rochette.

The reading caused an immense sensation.

M. Ceccaldi, a friend of M. Cailloux’s, accused M. Marthou of being M. Caillaux’s assassin.

Inflamed by political animosity, M. Monis denied the Procurator’s allegation and demanded an inquiry into the history of the document and how M. Bart lion abstracted it from the archives. ■ The motion was withdrawn in favor of one ordering the prolongation of the Pochette commission of inquiry. The police seized the documents at M, Calmette’s office. It is reported that they include M. Caillaux’s private letters to his wife before marriage. M. Caillaux handed the police a letter written by his wife, which he found ou tiie night of the tragedy, wherein she says: “When you receive this I shall have executed justice.” Lahori defends Madame Caillaux. Mounted police patrol the grand Bonlcvarde to prevent demonstrations. M. Rewoult succeeds M. Caillaux in the Cabinet. INFLUENCE ON THE ELECTION. Paris, March 18. The sensation caused by the shooting of M. Calmette is comparable to tiie assassination of President Carnot. The political consequences will bo far-reaching and will profoundly iiu duence the impending election. General disapproval of M, Callaux’s conduct of affairs in the Franco-German-Morocco crisis of 1911 resulted in the fall of his Cabinet in Januiv*. 1912.