LOST NATIONALITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 89, 12 October 1938, Page 4

LOST NATIONALITY

GERMAN IN COURT

SERVED WITH BRITISH ARMY

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" Lonrfs* Representative.) LONDON, September 9. A German; who, by joining the Brim tish Army in 1914, lost his nationality, appeared at Westminster, it being aN leged that he passed off a Greek notq for 50 drachmas as "a 50-dollar bill." Karl Wilhelm Gebhardt, 48, hotel porter, of Star Road, Fulham, S*W.^ pleaded guilty to stealing 30* ibyi means of a trick from Harry Dale, licensee of a public-house, Brompton Road, on August 13. Detective Brooks stated that- Gebhardt said to Dale, "You know me. I am employed as a porter just down. the road. Will you lend me 30s en this 50-dollar biU for a couple of days. It is worth £10, but do not put it through your bank. I will call on Monday and redeem it." The money was lent, but he did not call again, and when inquiries were made at the place -where he had b(Sen employed it was stated that he had absconded. The bill was found to be worthless. The Magistrate, Mr. Powell: He called it a 50-dollar bill. I see it is a Greek note for 50 drachmas. Giving details of Gebhardt's career* Detective Brooks said he was an alien, and now had no nationality. He wx born in Germany in 1890 and came to this country in 1904. He was hert in 1914 when the Great War broke out. and enlisted as a private in th* British Army, thereby losing his German nationality. After the. war he went to India, and obtained employment 6u ocean liners as a hairdresser. He was a fluent linguist. There were several previous convictions, one being for obtaining £2 in ci?cumstsflce» similar to those in the present case. In 1935 he was recommended for deportation for a breach of the Aliens? Order. He now had no nationality. The Magistrate: It is difficult to understand how, if he lost his nationality in 1914 by enlisting in the British Army, he could be recommended for deportation. Gebhardt: 'When I came her* in 1904, 10 years' absence from Germany in those days lost me my nationality. I enlisted in the Honourable Artillery Company, and was given a comrtaission in -the field in 1916, and wOn ***• eral distinctions. "Then I went to India and served in the Frontier Force in the KhyberP|Bs. Since then I have worked as a decJc hand and steward oh seagoing liners. I have had a good deal of malaria to. my time, and when I committed this offence I hardly knew what I wis doing." The Magistrate: The trouble is that this is not the first time you haye done this sort of thing. Detective Brooks said that Gebhardt had been reporting regularly to the police every week. The Magistrate: I shall remand him, and you might make further inquiries as to how he came to be recommended for deportation. In the meantime 13 will ask Captain Thornton, the proba* tion officer, to see him.