JUSTICE OR DEATH

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 915, 7 March 1930, Page 9

JUSTICE OR DEATH

HUNGER STRIKE BY UNTRIED WOMAN REFUSES FOOD AND DRINK PARIS. Thursday. Madame Martha Hanau, who vas arrested in December, 1925, in connection with alleged frauds >u the conduct of her financial newspaper the ‘Gazette du Franc,” has been hunger-striking. She declares that she will starve herself to death unless her case is investigated. Now she has refused even to drink water. Her case is an instauce ot how long one can be kept iu prison in France without trial. An “investment service” in the Parisian financial newspaper, the. “Gazette du Franc,” owned by Madame Hanau and her husnand. resulted in the arrest of the couple. The “Gazette du Frt.nc” was declared bankrupt on December 10, 1925. It was alleged that various financial papers had received large sums to print publicity notices for these companies, and the names of many prominent persons v.-oro connected by rumour with the “Gazette’s” transactions. A ben Madame Hauau was brought >efore the examining magistrate she made a detailed denunciation of Georges Anquetil, the founder and director of the financial journal "La Kumeur,” who was under arrest. It was alleged that Madame Hanau kept a notebook in which was a list of influential people, including senator;;, deputies and even two ex-Premicrs. to whom she had advanced money, virtually bribes in return for their moral support of her enterprises. An examining magistrate questioned the woman. He received evasive answers. Finally madt.me refused to answer a direct question as to whether -he kop’_ an account of the sums paid out as bribes.