ASTOUNDING STORY

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 74, 20 December 1933, Page 11

ASTOUNDING STORY

Bribery in Connection With

London Fires

HARRIS’S ALLEGATIONS

London, December 18. An astounding story of wholesale bribery in connection with Loudon fires was told in evidence during the hearing of charges against Captain Brynmor Miles at Bow Street. Leopold Harris, who is serving a term of imprisonment as a result of the fire conspiracy, alleged that he bribed almost the entire Salvage Corps, the members of which came openly to his office, sometimes in uniform, to receive money. He said: The London Salvage Corps was corrupt before I was born. I did not initiate bribery, It was simply a matter of conipeting l)l with our competitors’ methods. The methods of the Salvage Corps gave better service to the assessor paying the biggest shilling.” Counsel produced a list of certain members of the corps, and asked Harris to strike out the names of those he had bribed. Harris replied: “It would be simpler to strike out the only man I did not bribe. I even bribed his father, whose name appears on the list. . . . I never approached anyone with a view to bribery. I only bribed those who came to me, indicating that they were susceptible to money payments.” Harris told how Oliver Capsoni, in the course of an unfriendly, tearful interview after Capsoni had been kicked out of Harris’s office, sought £2OOO to leave the country. Harold Ralph, a fire assessor, gave evidence that the defendant Miles ridiculed the idea of salvage officers going to Harris’s office for pay. Ralph made allegations against a superintendent, whose name was not disclosed in court, but Miles declared that the faintest suspicion of any member of the Salvage Corps helping Harris would be incalculably harmful. Ralph offered to produce a book in .Harris’s handwriting, detailing all such payments, but ne failed to obtain it.

Witness said that be paid a man £5 a week for information, and the same man kept Harris informed. The case was adjourned until December 20.