37. _A Russian Crime tried in Austria._
The following appeared in the _Westminster Gazette_ on Feb. 19th, 1908:
"WADOWICE (GALICIA), _Feb._ 18.
"Judgment was pronounced to-day in the trial, which began in the
District Court here yesterday, of Wanda Dobrodzicka, a young Russian
woman charged with having thrown a bomb at General Skallon,
Governor-General of Warsaw, on May 18th, 1906.
"The indictment set forth the existence of a very skilfully devised
plot to kill the Governor-General. As he very seldom left the castle it
was necessary to do something to compel him to come out. Accordingly
one of the conspirators, in the uniform of a Russian officer, grossly
insulted the German Vice-Consul. It became necessary, therefore, for
the Governor-General to pay a personal visit to the Vice-Consul to
express his regret, officially, at such an occurrence. This was exactly
what the conspirators had reckoned upon, and they laid their plans
accordingly. Wanda Dobrodzicka, who was only twenty years of age, was,
it was alleged, entrusted with the task of killing the Governor.
According to the prosecution, she took up her position on a balcony
which he would pass, and when his carriage came she hurled a bomb at
it. The bomb, however, failed to explode. In the confusion the woman
escaped and succeeded in making her way to Trieste, going thence to
Italy and Switzerland, and afterwards coming to Galicia, where she
married and settled down.
"She was arrested on October 20th, 1907, and the Russian Government
demanded her extradition. As, however, through her marriage, she had
become an Austrian subject, the Galician authorities decided that she
must be tried in Galicia. The jury returned a verdict of 'Not guilty'
on both counts of the indictment. The accused was acquitted, and was
immediately released, as no notice of appeal was given by the Public
Prosecutor. The prisoner having been declared 'Not guilty' by the
Polish jury, notwithstanding her full admission of having thrown the
bombs, was accorded a great ovation by the crowd, who presented her
with flowers."
38. _Stratagem or Perfidy?_
In 1783, during war between Great Britain and France, the _Sybille_, a
French frigate, enticed the _Hussar_, a British man-of-war, by
displaying the British flag and intimating herself to be a distressed
prize of a British captor. The _Hussar_ approached to succour her, but
the latter at once attacked the _Hussar_ without shewing the French
flag. She was, however, overpowered and captured.
39. _Murder of a German Consul in Mexico._
In 1906 the German consul in Oaxaca, a town in the Mexican state of
Puebla, was murdered while in the house of a Mexican named Conttolene,
with whom he had had a dispute. Conttolene was arrested and prosecuted,
but acquitted. However his nephew, a Mexican named Rangel, gave himself
up for the crime and was condemned to two years' imprisonment. As this
punishment was considered too light the prosecuting counsel appealed,
but withdrew his appeal by order of the public prosecutor; and the
light sentence on Rangel was therefore allowed to stand. The German
government considered the punishment meted out to Rangel insufficient,
and made representations to the Mexican government complaining of the
fact that the appeal was withdrawn by order of the public prosecutor.
The Mexican government answered that it disapproved of the action of
the public prosecutor, because it recognised its international duty
sufficiently to protect the lives of foreigners in Mexico and to punish
adequately any murder of a foreign resident. On its recommendation the
governor of the state of Puebla deprived the public prosecutor
concerned of his office.
40. _Cossacks at Large._
On June 27th, 1908, a telegram from Brody, in Eastern Galicia, stated
that a party of 14 Cossacks crossed the frontier into Austria,
plundered a house near Radziwilloff, shot dead the owner and his wife,
and cut off his daughter's hands and carried them away. They also
mutilated two other persons who were returning across the frontier.
Austrian gendarmes captured two of the Cossacks.