The occasion was the unveiling by M. Herriot, the Minister
of Public Instruction, of a bust of M. Combes, the author of the famous lois laiques which separated the Church from the State. While the crowd was inspecting the monument after the unveiling some Camelots du Roi made a demonstration in the best Royalist-Clerical man- ner. One of them with a hammer broke off the nose of M. Combes and that was the signal for a fight. The police fired into the air at first, but afterwards were apparently compelled to defend themselves and one of the Camelots was killed and another was wounded. It is impossible to say yet whether this strife will spread in political life and whether M. Poineare's Government will be brought into danger. When we wrote last week the Government seemed to be safe enough. No doubt the Radical Confer- ence, which is to take place at'Angers after we have gone to press, and which has the souls of M. Briand, M. Sarraut, and M. Herriot to some extent in its keeping, will illuminate the subject.
Previous page
