The Winnipeg Tribune from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada • Page 33

these squalling mobs, this blood running through the Paris streets what is it about? Someone murmurs the name "Stavisky." Who is Stavisky, and what has he td do with this grew some How did the name of a simpering gigolo become the symbol which could strike terror to the heart of France? How did a pawnshop swindle in a small city in the southwest corner of the country start a European earthquake which ranks among such tremendous economic explosions as the South Sea bubble, the eight billion franc crash of the Banque National de Credit, the Kreuger scandal, or th far reaching Insull collapse? Stavisky, a Polish Jew, was born In Sobodka, Russian Ukraine, in 1886, the son of a dentist His family, perhaps because of czarist persecution, soon migrated to Paris. There, at the age of sixteen, the soft mannered boy be saa to attract the attention of middle aged women in search of the fountain of youth. One woman, who took no chances on letting life pass her by, persuaded him to go week ending with her in Deauville. An opportunist to the core, Stavisky did not hesitate and he came back with her entire bank roll He went on other week ends, and month ends, with all manner of affluent ie males. He stole at every opportunity.

He organized a cinema trust," with which he took the earnings of innocent young girls who wanted to be in pictures tut who, under aiavisicy care, for. one reason or another never quite made the erade. Now and then he went to jail for a minor fraud. He married a couple of times, thought up new money making schemes, grew bolder and bold fye pinning tejtmg wibmw Magazine Section SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 1934 GRAFT IS KEY TO MURDER, SUICIDE, RIOT IN STAYISKY MYSTERY Wave of Violence Trailing $30,000,000 Swindle Set in Motion by French Rebellion Against Grinding Taxes, Inefficiency, and Corruption By Guy Murchie Jr. TT IS jut before midnight in Pari, Feb.

6, 1934. Across a vast plaza awarm men, children, young girls, boys thou JL sands of them. Torches flash against the smoky dark nest shouts, groans, screams, wild strains of La Marseil laisethe familiar smell of milling humanity, dust, hore, gasoline, gunaowder. What is that coming out of the chaotic distance? What is that silver Hashing? Those screams? That clatter of hoots? "The Spahis!" A dozen dark faced riders charge into view, their scarlet and white burnouses flaming behind, their Algerian sabers whippitg the heavy air. Flash! Slice! A young girl struggling to dodge the horses has the side of her face cut in two! As she crum ples whimperirg to the cold stones, a one legged veteran is struck across the neck.

He raises his hand in defense. Again comes the stinging blade and off go four fingers! Children shriek in terror. Figures sink to the ground like overcoati falling off a hook. Nearby cafes become hospitals. Passing doctors operate with bread knives and waitresses rip napkins into bandages.

Is this 1789? No it is 1934. But er. Before long he was arrested on a charge of embez zling $1,650,000, whereupon his respectable tather was so shocked as to commit an honorable Jewish suicide in the forest of Fontainbleau, Only $600 of the slolen money ever was recovered. Stavisky went to prison, but in five months had so managed to Jf A i 'I OK. IV; it ai I.

Magazine Section SsZ? OV. Tallied Pim. StavlsW (beautiful VSw of billr Yvonne, NX with her two "I don't vV lno husband not jS 1 vV or not; but there no doubt tha XT i NS. 4 stilt be alive Polie "adn SX VV i fi wil. atintion for vv.

1 few I 'tip Sargo Stavhly Handsoma Alax His tafos war oponad and found ampty Suddaniy cam nw of Stavisky 's death fa would kliM that tha do lie kad not raally murdered him." iff arrange things tnai both his private physi cian and the prison doctor testified that the confined life was endangering his delicate health. v. wa acain loose in his old i haunts, even having obtained a special police pass by offering his services as fndiValrur (stool pigeonV H.s case was not dismissed, but h.s well paid lawyers contrived to put through nineteen continuances between 1926 and WJ. During these seven years the silver tongued charmer roamed freely, climbing into high circles of politics and finance. Whom he bribed and bought to get his entree is still a mystery.

Almost everyone knew that he was a petty crook, but somehow publicop.nion tolerated him. He lived under various aristocratic names Serge Alexandre, Doisy de Montel" and "Victor Boitel" often deceiving even his friends. He owned a magnificent pale blue car with a white uniformed chauffeur, frequented the racetracks, and eave sumptuous banquets to the most prominent personages he could inveigle into coming. At length visions of grandeur carried him a little too far. He decided he needed a city a mayor, and a pawnshop." He chose the Basque town.

Bayonne. Joseph Garat. Bavonne's veteran mavor. readily succumbed to the sly advances of the polished ph.lan thropist from Paris, who now called himself Monsieur Serge Alexandre." An ord as neatly pushed through the city council, and Alexandre" got his pawnshop. Pawnshops in France are no ordinary pawnshops.

They are a municipal monopoly he'd in Paris by the Credit Municipal, popularly known as "ma tame" (ny aunt). These city managed institutions fulfil some of the functions of banks. Originally founded by Louis XVI as a r.oble experiment in answer to public protests against loan sharks, they lend money to the poor at low interest. Most of them are heavily endoved, and their bonds are considered one of the soundest investments a Frenchman can make. At first the pawn business in Bayonne went regularly under Alexandre's free hand, but this "philanthropic found er began to issue oonaj Deyona the amount of pawned goods in his shop.

He called them good insuranea investments," and they went for a long time unquestioned. At last slowly accumulating suspicion burst when an insurance company presented soma bonds for payment and couldn't get it. Alexandres safes were opened and found empty. Warants were Issued lor his arrest but he had quietly gone "on a vacation." Bondholders and desperate poor people clamored for payment The scandal, spreading like black death over the land, was heightened by reports from the opposition press that Stavisky had last been seen sitting with Jean Chiappe, prefect of the Paris police, in a theater. Further charges by opposition papers, which long had tried to unseat Premier Chautemps, held the premier responsible for the fact that Stavisky possessed a card as inspector in the French secret service, thus preventing detectives from exposing him.

It was further suggested that Stavisky now was concealed in Paris under high protection." A tremor of sickening doubt swept through the foundations of French burocracy. Suddenly came news of Stavisky's death. When operatives of the surett general (secret service), with local constables, kicked down a certain door in fashionable Chamonix, the archsv.indler (so says the report) shot himself." But few would believe the police had not really murdered him to protect themselves from further revelations. Now new accusations blared from the opposition papers that Stavisky had visited the premier's office on Christmas day and that Georges G. Pressard, chief prosecutor of Paris and brother in law of the premier, had been Stavisky's lawyer.

Suspicion increased in geometric progression. Even the mild mouthed Journal des Debats ventured: "Stavisky's sudden death is so opportune for those who feared the revelations he might make that the circumstance compels attention." Premier Chautemps, his back to the wall, roared: "The guilty will be punished! We shall get at the facts! Th scandal brought riots, the government's fall, and a political house cleaning..