The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-08-25
PRETTY TANGLE
 FOR DIPLOMATS English Prisoner Escapes to
 French Soil
AND PROBLEM RESULTS
to Front Again When a Ragman Wants to Assume Responsi-
 bi1ity for the Crime

l
 very pretty little diplomatic tangle for
 the diplomats of France and England to
 straighten out, and while 1t will not arise
 to the dignity of an incident" there are
 points about it which are likely to cause
 the foreign officers at Paris and London
 some unease and which might develop ar
 ugly phase if the "Cordiale was less
 firm than he is.
 l It all arises out of a very peculiar hap
 pening at Marsailles, complicated some
 what by French politics.
 The Indian student Savarkar, whose extradition from England to India was
 ordered upon charges of sedition and con spiracy against the kings government and allotment of murder embarked in the
 P. & O. steamship Morea at Gravesend, in the custody of a detective-inspector
 from Scotland Yard and three Indian po- lice officials. Upon the arrival of the liner at Marsailles Savarkar. who was in the bath room, crawled through an open port hole, pluhged into the harbor and swan ashore. As soon as the de- tectives, who had been waiting outside the bath room door. became aware of their prisoners escape they raised a hue and cry, with the result that a sergeant of the French dock police, who was on duty on the wharf, captured the fugitive as he clamored out of the water. Ac- cording to M Cadenat, one of the vice. mayors of Marsailles and socialist deputy for the city, who supplies this version of the incident to the Humanite: "The French police sergeant surrendered the fugitive to the British detectives, where as he ought to have handed him over to the chief of the harbor police"
 A few days after the liner had sailed the French Socialist Press got wind of against what is described as a violation of French territorial jurisdiction and of 'the rights of man. The persistence with which M. Jaures' urged the fugitives cause has induced the French govern to stay proceedings until all the docu ments in the case have been submitted to the French authorities.
 According to the Temps. international laws seem to require that Savarkar should be handed over to France In or der that the French authorities may take cognisance- of his case, since the British government failed to notify the French government that a political prisoner was about to pass through French terri tory, and since the fact that the fugitive landed on French soil deprived the Brit ish authorities of their jurisdiction over him. It is even asserted that 1t was ir- regular for the Morea to enter French territorial waters with a prisoner on board without previous notification of the fact in accordance with treaty rights.
 The celebrated Brierre murder case, which nine years ago caused a great sen sation, has come to the fore again by the appearance of an itinerant ragman at Tours who, it is alleged, wishes to as sume the responsibility of the crime. It may be remembered that the five children of a widowed farmer named Brierre were found murdered in their fathers house on a farm near Corancez. Some weeks afterwards suspicion fell on the father himself, who was arrested, tried and sentenced to death. the penalty being commuted to transportation and hard la bor for life.
 Throughout the trial Brierre never ceased to assert his innocence, with so much vehemence that even after the yer dict of the jury he had many partisans who believed that he had been unjfstly condemned To this day there are still many people who are of this opinion. From the convict settlement whither he had been transported in French Guiana, Brierre wrote letter after letter to the authorities pointing out the alleged err TOTS and mistakes committed at his trial and finally he drew up long statement, or sort of memorandum, in the effort to prove his innocence and to show that certain important evidence had been neg lected.
 The authorities seemed rather impressed by the constant protests, and there was even talk of pardoning him altogether at the beginning of this year, when news was received that he had died.
 His only surviving daughter, who at the time when all her younger brothers and sisters perished was In Paris, and there fore had escaped their fate, never doubt ed her fathers innocence, and up to the last moment did all she could to obtain revision of the case.
 Instead of a deterrent the execution of Liabeuf seems likely to be the cause of an increase in the number of attacks on the Paris police.
 Recently an individual fired a revolver at a passing taxi A policeman ran up and was about to siege the man when he leveIled his weapon at the officers breast and exclaimed, T am going to avenge Iiabeuf and down you!'' The crowd however, seized him from behind. Taken to the police station he said his name was Bourdier. aged IS, of no ad- dress. He fired at the taxi as the best way of attracting the policeman, whom he intended to offer up as a victim to the memory of Liabeuf.
 As Bourdier was being taken to jail he remarked that he was not discouraged. He would try again, and he hoped with better luck.
 In view of the strength of the socialists there are interesting possibilities in the case
 What is quite a novel method of strilx- ing has been adopted by the Paris syndi- cate of Bank and Bourse Employees, who are seeking higher wages. The mini mum wage they demand Is $360 per year, and this for beginners only. They held a meeting at the Bourse du Travil, under the presidency of M. Nectoux, socialist deputy, and announced that if their de- mands were not granted they would adopt .'the open mouth" strike. We are already familiar with "the folded arms" strike, and "sabotage'' or the wilful de- struction by strikers of their employers property and tools.
 | The "open mouth strike" means that the secrets of the profession will be cried | from the housetops The grocers recently employed it on a small scale telling Pa risians how they were cheated in many of the shops, but the Bourse employees propose to go farther. They have already ica,,ad Hona anpeal.v fin which thev state