LONG ARM OF LAW

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 18 September 1934, Page 6

LONG ARM OF LAW

Police Detain Passengers At Vancouver PAY ROBBERY SUSPECTS HOLD-UP RECALLED SYDNEY, Sept. 13. The Aorangi arriyed at Vancouver last Saturday, and our Commissioner of Police was at once informed that the authorities at the Canadian port have detained two men who seemed to them to be undesirable visitors, writes the “Auckland Star’s” Sydney correspondent. Further information is to the effect that the Canadian police are co-operating closely in this matter with pur C.T.8., and that the men detained are being held on suspicion of being connected with what is known here as the pay-roll robbery. On July 26 of this year three Public Works Department officials were “held up” by armed bandits outside the Bank of New South Wales, off George Street, in the heart of Sydney. One of the bandits fired a shot which wounded the paymaster, and was in turn -wounded in the face by a bullet fired by the special constable who accompanied the car. But the robbers got clear away with £I3OO, and they were not overtaken. During the intervening -weeks our police have made constant efforts to pick up the trail of these criminals, but it was not till after the Aorangi left Sydney on August 16 that they received information which induced them to put the American and Canadian port authorities on the alert. In such cases there is always close cooperation between the American and Canadian immigration officers on the one hand and the Australian police on the other, and it is probable that steps will soon be taken to facilitate the return of tne suspects to Sydney.

The men who have been detained are accompanied by their families —one having three children, the other two — and they had evidently made up their minds to leave Australia for good : . It would he improper to prejudge the the case, but it is certainly satisfactory to find that our police, in spite of the absence of clues apd the difficulty of tracing the culprits, have not yet relaxed their efforts to bring these offenders to justice. SCOTLAND YARD AND GOLD ROBBERY. Another news item which also indicates that our detectives deserve their high reputation for vigilance and efficiency cpme thip week by cable from Scotland Yard. It seems that a quantity of gipld “grain”—that is, dust pud shavings—the property of a bank, was stolen Recently from a van in one of thp main streets of Binpingham. The gold was worth £3OOO, apd Scotland Yard is anxious to recover it. In some way not yet explained, the name of a criminal .once well known in Sydney is associated with this robbery. tip to four years ago Joe Ryan was one of the mo.st notorious frequenters pf {Sydney's undlerwlprld—a dangerous man, particularly successful as jj. burglar because of his natural cleverness and his aptitude for assuming disguises. But in 1931 some bandits “stuck up” the Canberra mail, and got away with money and other property to the amount of £IO,OOO. Joe Ryan was arrested for alleged complicity, but he was allowed out on bail, and promptly absconded. The police searched energetically for him round and about Sydney, for it was generally believed that he would remain hidden for some time to avoid the careful watch kept at all Australian ports, before attempting to leave tjie country.

RECOGNISED IN AMERICA. It was well known that he was concealed in our underworld and many reports reached the police and the news papers from people who professed to have seen and recognised -him in different parts of Sydney, while he was supposed lo be ‘‘in smoke.” Then he finally disappeared from Australia; but the police still kept on his trail. Two months ago they got word that he had been recognised in an American town, where he was “doing well in honest business.” But the United States police -had. nothing against him and apparently our own C. 1.8. was not inclined to go to the trouble and expense of trying to secure his extraditios merely on the suspicion of having participated in a robbery now three or four years old, with very little direct evidence now available. But Scotland Yard reports that Ryan ha£ recently arrived in England from Canada, and the Sydney police authorities are now able to bridge the interval that lias elapsed since the Canberra mail robbery, covered By Ryan’s stay in the United States. What Ryan has had to do with this Birmingham case is not yet clear. But it is becoming increasingly difficult for criminals to evade the long arm of the law, and it is well to know that our C. 1.8. is helping to make it impossible.