A PARIS MYSTERY.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 12, 15 January 1924, Page 8

A PARIS MYSTERY.

■ {ASSASSINATION OR SUICIDE. I A DAUDET DEAD. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON", December 3. Paris was startled yesterday (Sun|day) to hear that Philippe Daudct, son | of Leon Daudct, bad been found dead in a taxi. It is not yet known whether ,it was a case of suicide or assassina:tion. | The boy wrote a farewell letter, the 'authenticity of which is not denied by :liis father:"—"My darling mother, forgive mc for tiie immense grief I am |causing you, but for a long time now II have been nn anarchist without dar jing to say so openly. Now that the cause tails mc, I consider that' what I am about to do is my duty. I love you very much. Kiss the kidd'es affectionately for mc." The cireuinstances seem to point to 'suicide. Yet tlie question is bcin* asked why should he take so violent a I measure even if be had become an 'anarchist, at the extreme end of the political front so remote from the position of his father —leader of the Royalist, the extreme liight of French : polities. M. Leon Daudet, his father, is the Ifouneler of tne "Action FrancaM," a • journal which, to quote his own description, is "un journal royalistc quotidien, ergane dv nationalisiue integral, L'Action Francaise elont la mission est, de detruire la rcpublique ct de raniencr en France le roi Philippe VIII." (a Royalist journal and organ of complete [nationalism, the mission of which is ti jdestroy the Republic and bring Philippe [Vlll. back to France.) Variations of the Story. The variation.; of the story are naturally many. The boy was evidentl ■ of a nervous, highly strung disposition, and, it appears, had offered several ; times to undertake any dangerous misjaion for the anarchist cause, calling ■several times on the editor of "1-iber-taire," an anarchist journal, to proffer his services. The father asserts on the one hand that the boy is the victim of an Anarchist plot, or that he had been so terrorised by the Anarchists under tho belief that lie (Philippe) was a spy from the Koyalist party seeking to ob- | tain Anarchist secrets, that lie committed suicide. The Daudet family's affairs have completely seized on the French—or at least the Parisian—mind. The newspapers are full of the matter and it is hard to say whether it figures most as a political issue or a mere sensational happening. Tlie boy is the grandson of Alphonse Daudct, the creator of Tartarin; author of Autour de ma Moulin and as r. family they are, to say the least, temperamental. Death in a Taxi. The strangest, part about tlufe whole affair is that the boy's death occurred a fortnight ago when he hired a taxi in the Place do leu Bastille. The cab had only gono a few yards when a shot was heard, and the elriver, tlescending, found the youth collapsed on the scat with blood streaming from bis head. A few hours later he died in hospital. His father, himself a doctor, saw the corpse in hospital, and agreed it was an ordinary affair of suicide. The case was hushed up by the Press, there was no post-mortem, and the boy was buried. It was the "Libertairc'' which, by its publication of the letter he left to his mother, brought about all the passionate scenes which are now rocking Paris to its boulevard base. Mr. Vidal, erlitor of the "Libcrtaire," declares that he was unaware until after the trageely that the young man who called upon him at his oflice on Thursday, November 22. was Philippe Daudet. Although Philippe, exact age was 14 years and ten months, he bad the influence of a well-built young man of 18. He was certninly under the influence of strong mental excitement, says M. Vidal. He saitl he was an Anarchist and wished to strike a blow for the cause, and he asked for the name of anyone whom the I Anarchist party wished to be rid of. M. Vidal, who is 21 years of age, asserts that he did his best to calm the boy; he explained that Anarchists were not Nihilists, and that they did not entrust missions to strangers. In 'the conversation the names of Marius Plateau, Germaine Berthon (who is awaiting trial on a charge of assassinating Plateau), and Leon Daudet were mentioned. His ambition was to commit some deed that would cause a great commotion. He talked of entering the police station and shooting indiscriminately at the police, or of going to a dancing hall and shooting down the dancers. He handed to M. Vidal 200f. pour L'action violente. Exhumation of the Body. They dined together at a neighbouring restaurant, says M. Vidal, and Philippe returned to the office with him, and remained there till nearly midnight. They lunched together at the same restaurant on the following clay, aud Philippe Daudet spent the afternoon at the Libcrtaire office. It was agreed that" they should meet in the evening at the Grenier de Gringoire, a Montmaitre cabaret. Philippe had not arrived when M. Vidal left the cabaret near midnight, but he came afterwards and borrowed 10 francs from a waiter. He returned to the cabaret on Saturday morning (November 24), the day of' his death, and borrowed another 25 francs and he afterwards sold his overcoat. A sum of 83 francs was found in his pocket. The effect of the publication of the letter on M. Leon Daudet has been remarkable. He now asserts disbelief in the suicide theory, and says that the wounds could not have been self inflicted and in pursuance of this belief he went accompanied by political friends, to the Palais ele Justice, and handed to the Public Prosecutor an accusation of murder against some person unknown. M. Barnaud, the magistrate, has been instructed to open an inquiry. He has ordered the exhumation of the body of Philippe Daudet, and this will take place tomorrow. M. Leon Daudet now puts forward the view in L'Action Francaise that the Anarchists, being the best police in the world, perceived his son's indentity and played with him as a cat with a; mouse. Philippe's real motive was to play spy upon the Anarchists, and betray them. The role he assumed demanded that he should offer to commit some Anarchist crime, some assassina- ■ tion. The Anare-hists encouraged him to commit himself, and then revealed to him the trap into which he had fallen. | In short, if it was suicide the Anarch- , ists hael deliberately manoeuvred the | high-strung youth into a position where his sense of honour and shame left no ' other alternative. I i

Storm of Indignation. The whole Royalist faction and its attendant Camelots dv Roi arc whipping themselves and the public into a perfectly furious storm of indignation— these Camelots by the way being a sort of French Fascists given to terrorism themselves. The calmest of the Liberal papers, L'Ere Nouvelle, says of the case that "it was one for private tears and public sympathy. It is the madman who appears with menaces in his mouth. After having himself admitted in his double capacity of a father and a doctor that it was a case of suicide (_ verdict confirmed at the time In every detail by the responsible medical and juridical authorities), he now denounced it as a crime. He takes the initiative for having the poor little corpse dug up and put through an j autopsy. Only yesterday, amid great pomp, they conducted that poor little | corpse, laden with flowers, to the cemcterv, while strident church bells were tolling and groaning, organs mingled I their sad plaints with th prayers of the faithful. To-morrow, under the rain and amidst the mud. a few officials will proceed to disinter, almost surreptitiously, that unhappy child and to transport it to the cold marble table of ail amphitheatre. And it 3is a father that brings all this about by hate, by political passion." In French medical circles the strange theory is put forward that the case is ; one of dual personality, and that when Philipne was suffering from one of the fits of nervousness to'whjch he was i"'- l--iect young Dandct visited the anarchist headquarters, being quite unconscious of his action.