Show INVESTIGATING I < CRISPPSCRIME r I Revival of the Great Italian r Banks Scandals CRISP SAYS HE IS A VICTIM OF CALUMNY Investigation May Show King Hum bert In a Questionable Light Blackmailing Plots That Drove the I Crispi Cabinet Prom Office One of the Most Voracious Plunderers Plun-derers Was the Premiers Wife Eis Own Grave Mistakes Bobbed Bob-bed Peter to Pay Paul Humbert Came to His Aid Rome Dec 2Tothty the chamber of deputies appointed a commission of five u inquire into the charges against I Signor Francesco Crispi former premier pre-mier In connection with the Bank of Naples scandals and the alleged illegal traffic in decorations l The proceedings are the result of the recent decision of the Italian court of r claims which Quashed the judicial indictment in-dictment brought against him on the ground that the ordinary tribunals of j justice were not competent to deal j with such charges brought against a former member 01 the government for his conduct while in the government The court of cessation held that such charges must be dealt with by parliament parlia-ment which was the contention of Signor Sig-nor Crispi and the judicial proceedings were thrown out The special commission was appointed ap-pointed after an impressive speech by Signor Crispi in which he declared that he desired the most ample and complete discussion of the whole question ques-tion and did not dread the light which he said could reveal nothing against him imVICTIM OF CALUMNY I am the victim of calumny he asserted and should have brought if the suit against my calumniators J latter had not been referred to the 4 chamber Signor Crispi recalled his past labors on behalf of Italy and he admitted that there had been times when he had erred He claimed however from his onquerors an unbiased judgment and asserted that he was prepared to testify tes-tify before the committee and omit nothing so that the matter could be probed to the deep adding pathetically patheti-cally but it will be very hard at 78 after devoting 63 years to the service of my country This passage of the speech provoked violent interruption and the president of the chamber formally for-mally warned two Socialist deputies who were particularl virulent Signor Crispi said after order was y restored I remain calm even in the lace of my adversaries invectives I have a serene conscience and I shall die when my time comes with the name of Italy upon my lips But I ask to be allowed to pass my last days quietly If Italy needs me I shall always al-ways be ready to serve her but I do not have and never have had ambition ambi-tion for power At the conclusion of his speech a number of the deputies gathered about him to congratulate him and to shaTe his hand HISTORY OF THE CRISIS Signor Crispi the most brilliant Italian J Ital-ian statesman since the days of Cavour IB called upon to face in his extreme old age not accusations of political crimes but ordinary felonies He has already beer subjected to the humiliation humilia-tion or magisterial examination in connection con-nection with the charge of complicity in the frauds that wrecked the bank of Naples the Bank of Rome the Bank of Sicily and other kindred institutions The Crispi cabinet was driven from of lice as the result of these scandals BLACKMAILING I In each case the insolvency of the bank appeared to have been brought about through the blackmailing extortions extor-tions to which it was subjected by leading politicians and government officials of-ficials ot the day Most of this dishonesty dishon-esty took place during the administration administra-tion ol Cilspi i Not even his most relentless S re-lentless enemy has ever accused him of plundering the banks to his private resources re-sources On the contrary his countrymen I country-men for the most part accepted his I I ass rtlon that the money extorted from these Institutions was used by him for the secret service of the government and in electoral expenditures HIS WIFE A PLUNDERER Unfortunately for him the judicial authorities who inquired into the causes that led to the failure of the banks discovered that among the most voracious vorac-ious of the plunderers was Signora Crispi the veteran statesmans wife It was stated at the time that from one uank alone something like ten millions of francs about 2000000 found its way into her private banking account and it Is still urged that Signor Crispi not being a rici man must have known of his wifes predatory demands as in no other way could he have accounted I for the large sums of money she expended ex-pended upon her establishment while he was in public HIS GRAVE MISTAKE Last spring when the matter was before be-fore the courts a friend of Signor Cris pi undertook to explain the transactions k which led to the collapse of the Bank l of Kale According to this story Signor Crispi just before the elections in 1S93 asked the Bank of Naples for a loan of 400000 lire for election expenses expen-ses the money to be repaid to the bank from the secret service funds Then came the downfall of the Crispi cabinet 4 1 cabi-net with only a little more than half the loan repaid Crispi told King Humbert of his predicament I I pre-dicament and his majesty gave 120000 lire toward the remainder of the indebtedness I i I in-debtedness Baron Blanc furnishing I I what was necessary to make up the full amount Thus according to the story Signor Crispi repaid the bank in full THREATENS HUMBERT When the accusations recently before the courts and now before the special commission of the chamber of deputies were being revived with talk of prosecution prose-cution Signor Crispi hastened from Naples to Rome demanded an audience with the king showed him the receipt of the bank for full payment and demanded de-manded that his majesty put an end to what Crispi characterized as the campaign cam-paign of injustice The erpremier rccording to the L story declared that unless his persecutors perse-cutors were called off he would defend himself to the last adding In such a case sir two persons will so into exile I as a poor man andyou with your millions The socialist press interpreted this audacious language to a threat of disclosures dis-closures that In consequence of a tipI tip-I ing Humbert had saved the whole matter of his large deposits in the Bank of Naples just before the crash came a |