A SENSATIONAL AFFAIR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 229, 21 September 1908, Page 2

A SENSATIONAL AFFAIR.

SUICIDE OF GENERAL WARD. SEQUEL TO THE SEVENOAKS TRAGEDY. London, September 18. CeiivralLuard whose wife was murdeled in the woods at fewnoaks a lew weeks ago, ,was sound <lcad 0 „ Uie railway m,e at West Farley U ,i 8 mon, lie iliad spent the night at Barham Court as the guest of Colonel Ward Hu went out U'fore breakfast and walked to the railway, where lw threw himself under an approaching train. General Liuird left letters Nuuiag his intention of taking his life. He said he was unable to bear any longer th« awful accusation that he had killed his wife. Several newspapers had hinted at this suspicion owing to the absence of any clue. ATROCIOUS INSINUATIONS.

THE GENERALS HEARTBROKEN. WORDS. " I CANNOT MEET MY SON." INTENSE PUBLIC SYMPATHY. Received 20, 4,40 p.m. London, August-19, General' Luard was the recipient of many letters containing terrible insinuations. He wrote words denouncing his traduccrs in heartbroken terms. The only surviving son lands at Southampton from South Africa to-' day. , General Luard complained bitterly of the scandalous nature of the questions addressed to him at the kiquest, Ho received dozens of anonymous letters directly accusing him of murder. His friends advised him to treat the letters and their insinuations with contempt, but his last lutter stated that he was sick of the scandalous and lying reports. "I cannot face my son," he concluded, "so have decided to end my life."

He 1,-ft several letters and telcgrajns to Colonel Ward, his housekeeper and others, indicating that he intended committing suicide, and directing the body to be removed to Burnlum Court. The driver of the train, seeing him jump in front of the train, vainly tried to stop him. There is intense public sympathy now evinced for General Luard.

BREAKING THE NEWS TO THE SON. THE JUimT VERDICT. Received 21, 1 a.m. London, September 20. Colonel Ward went to Southampton and broke the news to Captain Luard, who later on attended the inquest ODi his father's body. A verdict of suicide while temporarily insane was r«. turned.

On August 24th the wife of MajorGeneral Charles E. Luard, of IngUiam Knoll, Sovenoaks, was shot wim a revolver, killed, and robbed ot three rings, the lingers being badly cut, on the balcony of a summer (house in the lonely woods attached to "Frankfleld," the residence of Horace Wilkinson, at Seal Chart, Sevunoaks, shortly aftcif her husband lad left her at a wicket gate leading to the woods. ertibsequently Major-General Luard wioU to the newspapers saying that the public had ibeen deeply stirred by the awful crime. He asked: "Had not the {imc arrived for clearing from the roads, lanes and woods many thousands of unemployed—many of tliem desperate from want—who may yield to temptation and commit the* worst sins?"

Tho English police were apparently .baffled in their attempt to discover the murderer of Mrs. Luard. They had apparently proceeded on the assumption that he was a robber, and that the murder was committed for motives of plunder. Tliuy had found that theory led to nothing, and were trying another line of investigation. It is a fact that the number of unsolved criminal mysteries is increasing. On« of the English papers recently published a list of these which fras certainly startling. We may refer to ttie railway murders—or tunnel murders, as they are sometimes called— no less than three of which are still undisposed of. The Edalji case is another ia which thu perpetrators of the crime have never been discovered. And tmer* are a number of others. It appears as if the expert criminal were Jieeoming too clevvr for the dvtective. It is certain that intellect of a high order is often displayed in the arrangement of a coup. There used to he a theory that a criminal would invariably give himself away if time were giren him. That consoling notion must "be aibaadoned. hi the older countries it seems that a career of crime is attracting a class of professional who is more than a match for the professional protectors of the public. Such an idea is fraught witfli a disturbing anxiety for the peaceaide and law-abiding section of Uftj community. We are fortunately in letter circumstances out here, and it will, we may hope, be long before we shall have tho same anxieties as exist in the other countries.