GERMAN GRAFT SCANDAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 2, 3 January 1925, Page 5

GERMAN GRAFT SCANDAL.

BAJO. SQUANDERS MILLIONS IX DOUBTFUL SPECULATION. An astounding scandal of post-war inilatiou and intrigue, in which beautiful Russian dancers, Balkan Governments, and post-war profiteers were inextricably tangled, has been uncovered in Berlin. .New and amazing revelations are being added, as the German Government digs into tiie graft and muck of inflation days. The scandal arises from the alleged bribery of Chief Walter Bartels, of the Berlin police praesidium's foreign section, but already it far overshadows that affair. Tnc revelations show that millions were juggled by post-war profiteers operating on meagre capital, now the profiteers were protected hy the police praesidium's inner ring, bow the Prussian State Finance Ministry shielded one of these speculators; bow the Prussian State Bank yielded unhesitatingly millions of gold marks for doubtful ventures; how the Rumanian Government was entangled in one of these '-Schieher" deals; how pretty "Tamara," the Russian btiauty, >\as used to inveigle Chief Bartels into •.be mesbrs of tiie Ru-smii 6necuiat_rgaminer net. Tho scandal ir.v.-)!vpi_r Bartels, who had almost life and death powers regarding permits for foreigners to remain in Germany, followed closely upon revelations of shocking irregularities in connection with the alcoholic traffic. Then followed rapidly the scandal involving a youthful secretary of tho Ministry of Justice, who fled after embezzling hundreds of thousands of gold marks, which he spent upon extravagant parties of wine and women.