Evening Star Newspaper, October 25, 1931, Page 87

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, OCTOBER 25, 1931 — ESCAPE af LAS from HORRORS of ; DEVILS ISLAN French Penal Colony in Guiana, Amid Wild Beasts and Quicksands of the Jungle, to Be Abandoned for New Site = Because of Increasing Number - of Escapes. Neveu was caught in the mudflats off- shore. Inch by inch he sank until, with a scream, his head disappeared, his arms still extended. Then they went under. BY R. S. FENDRICK. PARIS. l l SUDDENLY heard a scream that sent a chill down my spine. “It was just the crack of dawn. I looked around and counted five of us— all fugitives from Devils Island—cling- ing to the roots of some mangrove trees along the shore of the Brazilian jungle, but Neveu, the sixth man, was missing. “Gazing toward the sea, I saw he had been caught in the mudflats, 500 yards out. His doom was sealed. “‘La Belle'—liberty—of which he had dreamed for 20 years, dangling before the poor devil's eyes, and yet to be chained by the sands as though in a vise. How the fates are cruel at times! To lead us safely through a torment of wind, water and sharks for three days and three nights in a leaky old tub, to guide us across 3 miles of grim, gurgling mudflats on a moonless, starless night, and then as we reached safety to see our pal held there! We had had nothinz to eat or drink. We were wet and shivering like men with the ague. Our teeth chattered. Behind us in the jungle wild beasts were snari- ing, but these trifles didn't matter now. “I remembered how we had whispered good- by 10 the hell hole behind with a curse; now I wished, oh, a thousand times, that we had never bribed the Chinese to help us slip away. “Poor Neveu didn’'t have the slightest chance to escape. Tha sun rose gorgeously, but inch by inch he sank, crying and begging for us to come and rescue him., We had to watch this awful scene in agonized helplessness all day long, as no living man could have crossed those quicksands on foot. He sank lower and lower, never ceasing to call to us. At noon he was down to his waist, As the sun began to set he was down to his neck. We could not endure it any longer. e had to turn our faces away. A final cry and men his head was svmllo‘ed up. A moment later his arms disappeared, too. Is it any wonder that three in our party refused to go any further, preferring to wait for the gendarmes to arrive? Le Breton and I fought our way through the jungle for six weeks, eai- ing raw snakes and raw monkey meat, We walked into Belem, Pra-il. looking like wild men."” UGENE DIEUDONNE, who remained 15 years . on Devils Island because of a miscarriag ui justice—he was wrongly convicted of being a member of the Bonnot gang of motor car pandits—brought back this tale two years ago. having been pardoned after he escaped and thereby attracted some attention to his case. It is only one of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of terrific human dramas that have been played at this French penal settlement in the Caribbean — desperate, blood-curdliny dramas enacted before reptiles and man-eating panthers in some dark jungle glade or among & school of sharks at sea. Since 1860 more than 50,000 Frenchmen, real rogues and mur- derers for the most part, have been dumped into this blazing, swamp-ridden, fever-infested, mosquito-laden hole and, according to recent French investigators, largely “sunk without a trace.” That is, the fevers or insects or swamps connuered thern It was one way for socieiy . to rid itself permanently of scoundrels, and there has been no other large-scale social ex- periment with such a tragic destiny in modern times. About 10 per cent of the 10,000 prison- ers there die or disappear annually. HE efforts of these men, rascals though they are, to fight their way through insurmount- able obstacles to reach “La Belle'—liberty—are epics of huran courage without any counterpart in fiction. The majority of the “evades” perish, but one finds them all over South America and a few are walking the streets of New Orleans and other American cities today. At last, after 70 years, the French govern- ment has finally decided that the penal settle- ment in Guiana is a failure, and it is activeiy studying the pessibility of locating it elsewher=. One idea is to re-establish it on New Caledonia Island, where it was formely located, and an- other at New Amsterdam Island. a French pos- session between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia. The problem is to find a place with a temperate cHmate, sufficient shelter and capable of producing foodstuffs, as well as being a long distance from any mainland. The gov- ernment may rot reach a decision about a new site quickly, for French red tape in such mat- ters is endless, but it seems determined this time to put an end to the present scandal. The present settlement is very unsatisfactory for several reasons, though no ene treubles much abeut the high mortality rate. One rea- son is that dangerous characters are continu- / 7 ally escaping and making their way back to France. Indeed, a group leaves almost every week. Another is that Great Britain and some of the Pan-American states don't like these criminals overrunning their territory, for many of them reach British Guiana and Trinidad. A high British court has just decided on ap- peal that escaped French prisoners were not -to be handed back to French authorities. And a still more important reason is that the coloniza- tion scheme has failed. According to the crim- inal code, a lawbreaker sentenced to from four to seven years of hard labor is not only sent to Guiana to work on the roads, but must make his “doublage”—that is, after being freed, he must remain in the country for the same length of time he served. Or if he has been sentenced to eight years or more he must remain there for life, This provision was not only to keep these dangerous characters away from France, but also to colonize the country. It has utterly failed. The freed prisoners were to be given concessions, but never have been. Besides, the country within reach is swampy jungle. At the moment the only prisoner there of outstanding importance is Benjamin Ullmo, an ex-ensign of the French navy, serving a life term for treason. He and a woman called “La Belle Lison” were the central figures in an amazing blackmail and espionage affair. On September 10, 1907, Mgr. Thomson, French naval minister, received the following anony- mous letter which was typewritten and post- marked Toulon: “I possess a photographic negative of the fol- French convicts know lhl'y are going to a living death when they are loaded onto boats 16 be trarsported to Devils Tsland! lowing confidential French naval documents: “(1) The secret code and secret orders. “(2) 'The secret signals 2nd secret words. “(3) The secret safety channels in the fivg big ports. *“I address myself to you before getting im touch with any foreign countries. I am willing to hand over the single negative I possess all these documents. I want 150,000 francs ($30,000.) If the price is too high, let me know what you will pay. Insert the following in the classified advertisements of I'e Journal of Paris$§ “‘Paul to Peter. Accept your price or sucl and such a price. I will then write to you and arrange to deliver the negative in return the money in 1,000-franc notes. If I do have a reply in eight days, I am going to sell them to a foreign country, and then you mus$ change all your secret codes, which will cost you more time and money than the price ¥ demand. You can be sure that I will not keep co} for myself. I am going to give you the d secret word as a proof of the authentios ity of the documents.’” HE anonymous blackmailer thereupon gavg the second secret password, and the revelae tion of this ultra-secret threw the Prench navad staff into a panic. After long negotiations, the blackmailer u_ anonymous letters and the naval ministry the classified advertisements, and a rendesveus im the wash room of an express train betwees Toulon and Marseille that didn't click, thi man was finally captured in the country. arranged to meet the ministry’s agent, supposed to have the money, on a remote road meall Toulon, which he had planned very clever! A burly detective went there on foot, and w! a young man wearing a mask stepped out eff & motor car, the detective called out: “Is that you, Peter? 1 am Paul.” “I am Peter,” the masked stranger rflafl. “Do you have the negatives? I have money.” The detective flashed a big roll banknotes to show his good faith. And then in a flash, as the stranger for the money, the detective landed on his and knocked him cold. It was Illme, then years old. He was first charged with but the Surete discovered that two months Bew fore he had tried to sell the documents %o § German agent in Brussels for 850,000 ($170,000). He was then charged 'it.h which was far more serious. When court-martialed in February, Ullmo told a pitiful story of how “La Lison” had taught him the opium habit. One day when he was in temporary commandl of the destroyer Carbine, the captain being leave, he managed to open the safe with false key. He discovered the secret and ph hed them. “I conceived treasonable plot in an opium dream and know what I was doing,” he cried in Illmo was sent to Devils Island for lfe remained there from 1908 until 1923, when thif governor took pity and transferred him to mainland. There is not the slightest hope ¢ him ever being pardoned. He is still in consh paratively good health. MARSEILLE medical man with a certailj fame, Dr. Bougrat, who was sent to Guiand] e four years ago after being convicted of mur: got away te Venezuela last year. He now wri home that he has a pretty wife, a big practice and six motor cars. Venezuela refuses to hand back escaped prisoners. The country needj many artisans and professional men and gets & steady supply from the penal settlement. A Monte Carlo hotel keeper, Blengino, whil} was serving 10 years on Devils Island on & charge of killing his wife, walked away & few weeks ago and returned to Europe without sng great trouble, Almost any one, or any group, that $200 can get away, for that is the price of boat. This is the result of h~ving & settlement in contact with a civilian tion. AIl sorts of people, particularly merchants and freed prisoners servirg “doublage” or forced residence, specialize in business of transmitting funds to the pri !mm their friends or relatives at home, taking a large commission for themselves, nati The ones who have no friends get money gambling, stealing or catching butterfiics that bring as high as 2 cents - (Copyright, 17°1.)