"SEVENTY YEARS’ SOLITARY!”

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 226, 16 June 1915, Page 7

"SEVENTY YEARS’ SOLITARY!”

END OF FAMOUS FRENCH SCANDAL. At the resumed hearing of the Dcsclaux case before the Paris court-mar-tial Maitre Philippe addressed the court on behalf of Madame Bechoff, th e well known modiste, who is charged as one of the accomplices of M. Desclaux.

According to counsel, the authors of the allegations levied against his client were discontented servants who wished to b© revenged upon their mistress He went into the various accusations one by one, and laid particular stress upon letters written by Madame Bechoff to the Paymaster, in which she begged him not to send her anything more. Concluding his speech, Me. Philippe said his client was a Frenchwoman in a double sense, Her father and her uncle fought for France in 1870, and all her relations were fighting for her today. He asked the court to show indulgence towards her. The court martial, says a Reuter message, sentenced M. Desclaux, chief army paymaster, to seven years’ solitary confinement and military degradation for misappropriation of military stores. The Court also ordered the prisoner’s name to be removed from the roll of the Legion of Honour. Madam© Bechoff, his mistress, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and the private soldier Verges to one year’s imprisonment. .The other accused were acquitted. Prom north to south, from east to west, I tqur the world with tireless zest, Mid tropic heat or Arctic snow, My health to simple means I owe. Through all I have one faithful friend, In atom and stress prompt aid to lend, That fortifies me to endure. 'Tis world-fumed Woods’ Great Pepper mint Care. 11