A RUSE THAT FAILED

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 108, 3 November 1923, Page 8

A RUSE THAT FAILED

"WHITEWASHING" A CLERGYMAN'S SON. (Received 3rd November, 1.45 p.m.)'

LONDON, 2nd November. Outhbert Rice, son of a Cornish clergyman, was charged at Bow Street Police Court with attempting to forge a copy of the London "Gazette." Prosecuting counsel said that accused, who was convicted of stealing in 1922, was desirous of whitewashing himself, and for this purpose he asked the Government Printf t°,V* ilat a facsimile page of the London Gazette" stating in correct phraseology that the prosecution of accused had been annulled owing to it being erroneous and based on false information. The Printer refused to print the _ Gazette without Government authority, and accused thereupon.wrote to the Controller of the Stationery Office under a false name and applied for permission to reprint pages of the "Gazette" on the ground that he was compiling war records. Permission was granted 'and accused returned to the Government Pr'nter. The latter, however, was not satisfied, and, communicated with the Stationery Office, and the ruse was then revealed.