SONOMA GOLD ROBBERY.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17315, 29 November 1921, Page 7

SONOMA GOLD ROBBERY.

a-. INVESTIGATIONS AT SAN FRANCISCO. (3y CaWer-Prew Aw<»iation-<*>pyrisM.) (Australia*! «nd N.Z. C»bl« Aaaooiation.) NEW YORK, November 27. •Mr Flattery, port surveyor of San Francisco, with a group of Customs officials familiar with the Sonoma *b a result of many inspections in past years, made a minute search of the vessel in tho hope of locating the stolen gold. TJiey found that several compartments of the. lifeboats had been tamjjiered with. Their investigations disclosed 450 bottles of liquor, valued at several thou, sand dollars.. This was confiscated. . The detectives now suggest the gold was possibly dropped in San Francisco Bay when {he Sonoma was quarantined, the boxes being buoyed and. subsequently lifted. The authorities are con. vinced that none of the ship'a officers is involved, but several members of the crew are unquestionably implicated. Mr Samuels, manager of the Oceanic Steamship Company, summing up the situation, said: "We now know positively that the gold wee stolen after the liner departed from Honolulu. We fcnow it ia not in the vessel now. We are convinced that it ie hidden eontowhere in San Francisco at present." MARAMA'S PTTHSEB BOBBED. (Jteuter'f T*I»S»»»M-> NEW YORK, November 26. In connexion with the Sonoma gold robbery, the San Francisco police state that the clues they possess oonneot the robbers with men who, on Wednesday, robbed Mr Leighton, purser of' the Marama, of £looo.' The belief,is that they mistook -Mr Leighton fo« Mr Albert Conquest, of the Sonoma,'who was in the bank 4tl the same time. Mr Conquest was carry* ing a pay-roll of £4OOO. If the theory is correct that the gang came to San Francisco in the Sonoma, then the nolice admit that the chances are that the robbery occurred jus.t before the ship reached Honolulu, where the specie was probably landed. ' ' i