Royalists Smash Ex-Premier's Statue

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 497, 29 October 1928, Page 9

Royalists Smash Ex-Premier's Statue

RIOT IN FRANCE TWO SHOT; 12 ARRESTED (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) Reed. 1.5. p.m. PARIS, Sunday. There was a remarkable scene at Pons when a marble statue of the former anti-clerical Premier, Emile Combes, was unveiled by M. Herriot, the Minister of Education. The actual ceremony had closed when a band of young Royalists broke down the police cordon which had been formed in anticipation of trouble. They rushed the bust, which one of the rioters quickly hammered, smashing off the no.se and chin. A fierce struggle ensued between the Royalists and the police, and many of the latter were knocked down in the melee. The police then drew their revolvers and fired, fatally wounding one demonstrator. Another received a bullet wound in the arm. The shock quelled the excited Royalists, who abandoned the struggle. Twelve were arrested, but the others escaped. The terrified crowd fled before the shots. There had been several threats previously that the statue would not be tolerated. The police were off their guard, because the attack was delayed until M. Herriot had completed the ceremony and departed. The Archbishop of Bordeaux, whose diocese includes Pons, recently issued a manifesto to all to protest against the ceremony. The Paris correspondent of the “Daily News” reports that the local Catholics signalised the commemoration of the memory of Combes, the famous anti-clerical Premier under whose regime the law separating the Church from the State was passed in 1904, by a day of mourning. The Archbishop of Bordeaux protested against the glorification of the Combes regime as preparing, through a religious war, for a world war, costing France so much blood and treasure.