"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.
SECTION XI