MAD EMPEROR'S ATROCITIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81895, 28 November 1906, Page 4

MAD EMPEROR'S ATROCITIES.

TORTURES IX THE PALACE. Paris, October 4. Some extraordinary stories are related concerning tiic conduct of the Emperor or Annam, Tliauh-Tmnai, wao is the Sovereign under Protectorate ill IndoCmna. The la t issues of the Saigon papers to Hand, and numerous leitiys. show tha. the Emperur, who is a young man of twen.y-seven, and lias always been known for his eccentric habits and ungovernable temper, lia- been guilty of iomc most revolting crimes. In August last lie became disp.'eascd wiJi several of his wives f,.r some trifling offence they had committed, and ordered tuem to be put to death. Wishing to get a- much savage pleasure as possible out of their deaths, Le ordered thai they should be tortur- . ed in a maimer too lie.nihlc to mention. Tuis wa- done in his presence, . tlie Empcior watching the wives' Ja-<i agonies with t.ie greatest delight, and compelling two of liis mandarins to remain wi.h him. A day or two .ater his MajiMy, in a tit of passion, drew his revolver and sii-.t dead the prince who was presidem of the council of the Royal family. The victim, who was universally esteemed, wa ■> a venerable old gentleman of 72. He was the last surviving son of the Emperor Minii-Mttng. Tnanh-Tiimai then shut himself up in his piivaie apartment, and when the French Resident called to rcmon tratc, refused to see him. The French Government considers this act as an affront to the person of its representative. The Emperor is believed by many Frenchmen who know him personally to be a criminal maniac. A fewyears ago lie wa-: afflicted with! a mania for experimenting in medical matters. One of • his experiments was to shut up his own mother in a room with two persons in the wort

stages of bubonic plague. "I sacrificed my mother in the cause of science; I wished to see if she would catch the p'ague," was the monarch's romark. On another occasion, under the pretext that he was aciing in the in-

terests of -cience, the Emperor had one of his wives vivisected. In J;n u,iry, ujoi, his Majesty so tortured his per onal attendants that their screams were heard at night in the French Residence. At that time the French Resident interfered, and rescued seven victims, all of whom had undergone atrocious torture-. All power was then taken' out of the hands of Tlunh-Tltmai, whose actional rule docs now exceed beyond the fifteen or twenty acres of his palace grounds.