REFUGEE FOR TRIAL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 281, 27 November 1941, Page 12

REFUGEE FOR TRIAL

JEWEL THEFT CHARGE

£2000 THAT HITLER LOST

MELBOURNE, November 24,

Jewels worth £2000 that were smuggled by a woman and her daughter across Europe after Hitler overran Austria were exhibited in the Cit3 r Court to-day. A refugee. "Mr. X," who was charged with having stolen the jewels and also with having illegally pawned them, was committed for trial.

Names were not mentioned in court because of the persecution of relatives in Europe that might follow one© it was revealed that jewellery worth £2000 had cscaped Hitler.

"Mrs. Y," who had charged "Mr. X," said she got a visa to leave Austria after Hitler overran that country.

Her daughter went to France with the jewels and then to Holland, where she left them with friends and returned to Vienna.

"Mrs. Y," according to her story in court' to-day, then went to Holland and brought the jewels to Australia, where she met "Mr. X," whom she had known in Vienna.

She alleged she took a joint safe deposit box for the jewels with "Mr. X," to whom she gave the key when he said he wanted to put important papers in the box.

Later she received a letter from "Mr. X" saying he had pawned the jewels, she said. Mr. M. Goldberg (for "Mr. X") claimed that the jewellery did not belong to "Mrs. Y," but to her daughter. The daughter, he said, had gone with "Mr. X" to Paris with the jewels. "Mrs. Y" had then allegedly written from Vienna that the Gestapo was worrying her. Mr. Goldberg said the daughter then went back to Vienna, and could not get out again.

He alleged that "Mrs. Y" came to Australia on the money that "Mr. X" had left with relativesin England to pay the daughter's fare to Australia. Detective McKnight said that when arrested "Mr. X" said he would

have gassed himself if he knew the detectives were coming. "Mr. X" said he had lost the money on the races. He had never been on a racecourse before coming to Australia. He would hive paid "Mrs. Y" back if she had given him six months more.