A PEKIN TRAGEDY.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 October 1921, Page 5

A PEKIN TRAGEDY.

MADDENED BY JEALOUSY. The greatest scandal in Pekin diplomatic circles for years has been caused by the drama which has been unfolded concerning the suicide of Captain the Indian attache, recently. Italian 1 officials are endeavoring to hush up the ■whole thing, but the name of the Marchesa Durazzo, wife of the Italian Minister, has been connected with the affair in each story of the tragedy. The facts so far as can be gathered, are these, says the Daily Express correspondent Tokio. Signora Maria Coecia, a former sweetheart of Captain Petri, arrived? from Rome and haunted her old lover, threatening to commit suicide, and creating the most painful scenes in public, until Captain Petri was desperate. Finally, one afternoon, Signora Coecia was. found in the Wagon!its Hotel, covered 1 with blood, her face and arms terribly mutilated. She was taken to hospital, where 70 stitches were necessary to save her life.

She declared that she had been attacked by a woman mad with jealousy, who had broken into her room armed with a knife. The signoria begged that Captain Petri be summoned to her bedside, and when he arrived she refused to let him go. He remained with her for two days, and in the evening when she fell asleep he left the hospital and was found dead with a pistrl by his side. It is said that he had been very friendly with the Marchesa Durazzo, who is described as halfHungarian and half-Italian. She is reputed to be exceedingly beautiful and vivacious, but rumors have reached Tokio that she is mentally erratic and subject to fits of temper. Her husband, the Italian Minister, has been recalled to Rome, but she remains at Pekin.