DAUDET’S PURPOSE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 863, 6 January 1930, Page 9

DAUDET’S PURPOSE

WILL HOUND DOWN PARIS POLICE TO REVENGE SON’S DEATH Times Cable. LONDON, Saturday. The Paris correspondent of “The Times” says M. Leon Daudet, back in Paris from his exile, has lost no time in defining in his newspaper, “Action Francaise,” his future attitude. He says:—

‘‘l shall struggle more stoutly than ever. I find no grounds for gratitude toward the Government for terminating a scandalous iniquity by ending my 29 months of exile. “My decision remains unchanged, namely, to seek the punishment of the police who murdered my son. I will hound down the servile, criminal magistrates who rendered an unjust verdict. As for M. Barthou and M. Poincare, we shall see.”

In 1925 M. Leon Daudet conducted a violent campaign against the Paris police in connection with the tragic death of his son Philippe, in November, 1923, who was generally believed to have committed suicide. He went so far as to charge them with having connived at the lad’s murder at the hands of anarchists. As the result of his allegations the driver the taxi-cab in which Philippe was found dead brought a successful libel action against him, during the protracted hearing of which a mass of evidence was Riven by the police and others. The verdict went against M. Daudet, who, in a passionate speech, declared that he would continue his campaign. Two years later he was called upon to serve a term of imprisonment, but refused. He was besieged by the police in the office of “Action Francaise” for two days and then surrendered. Then (, ame his sensational escape from prison as the result of a hoax. Later he was exiled to Belgium for three years, but his term of exile was terminated on December 27 last by the French Government.