FRENCH TRAITORS SHOT.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 June 1920, Page 9

FRENCH TRAITORS SHOT.

THREE -MEN- AMD A WOMAN. London, May 15. The execution of the 'three men and one woman, who were found guilty of treason in connection with the publication of the Gazette des .Ardennes during the war, was carried out in the presence |of the Press. Toque, Limoin and Herbert were accompanied to'the firing stake by priests, while nuns comforted Alice Aubert. Aubert was the last to arrive at the scene of the execution. Toque, who was smoking a cigarette, laughingly complained of the "unpunctualiity of the women, keeping three men waiting to die." Aubert, who had broken down in her cell, was more composed as the time of her death approached. Toque's last cry of innocence unnerved the firing-party. The men died protesting their innocence and shouting "Viva la France!" The woman was shot with her hands clasped in prayer. Toque was not killed by the volley, and four revolver shots wen; necessary to give, the coup de grace. The grisly details were lavishly pictured in the Sunday Press and shown in cinemas. This lurid publicity is unfavorably commented on. [Ten Frenchmen and a woman, were sentenced in October, 1910, for their activities in connection with the Gazette des Ardennes', -the Ipro-Gerin'an newspaper published in North France during the German occupation. Three men 'and a woman were sentenced to death, and the remainder to from five to seven years' penal servitude.]