MISSION SCANDAL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume L, Issue 9002, 26 January 1906, Page 6

MISSION SCANDAL.

REVELATIONS OF EDINBURGH SLUM WORK.

(Weekly Scotsman.)

Walter John Watson, who is known widely in Edinburgh, in connection with a "city mission" under his charge, has been arrested by the police under dramatic cirstances on a charge- of bigamy. To comprehend these one must go back a little oTe-c Watson's history duxing the- past twelve/ months.

His name of Watson is stated to be assumed, his Teal name- being Walter Beck.. It was under the latter appellation that a little over a year ago h& was working in Glasgow as a tailor. He ! struck "up an. acquaintance witE a domes,tic servant of the;- .name of Annie Nelson Allan, whom he married: <, Mrs Beck and J her husband Jatterly- went back to her old home at Ofahamston, wh&re- the ■ husband was introduced lo- Mts Beck's patents, and \ .the pair set up house together. " The life they led was not .a happy one, it, is affirmed, and a 'tew months after the marriage ■ — which took 'place in September last j year — Beck left her, it is stated, and came to Edinburgh, where he took up the role of "miseionary" and slnm-rescue wor-i j ker." i . STARTING A MISSION. | JELe first of all made overtures to a wellkiiown High 6treet mission, and in the course of his connection with that body he met his second partner, an attractive lady of the name of Georgina Whitlock, who for some months past has acted txs organist, vocalist, and secretary to the; Watsoa . Mjfision. His associations with the mission -referred to were not harmonious, and soon there came a rupture, after which Beck,' ox Waiter John Watson, as he was now known, left the mission in •dudgeon, and opened negotiations with the 'Edinburgh Branch of a Glasgow mission situated a little, lower down the High 6treet. He worked with them for a few weeks, and. then he seems to have decidfd to establish a mission on his own account. The mission prospered financially. An office was taken in the Cause Wayside district, and a hall at 142 High street, where services were conducted, and where Watson held his "annual meeting" of subscribers reported, at the time, and read his neptarf. ' • -

A balance-sheet of a kind was read out, and the missionary anmounoed at an openair meeting his intention of •publishing a second ' balance-sheet. ■ The -opportunity ;w«is mot' "gi vieai him for. doing ' this, as it Ityppenejl. . Between; eight, and nin« on Sunday" -night Watson ..was -called away from one of his meetings in- the hall at 142 High street 'to' the 'public office of the Criminal ' Investigation; Departmfint, and i faced, with -his real wife. ,

. It appears 1 that, the bona fide wife had I become anxious about • the prolonged absence of -her husband, and com© to Edia.burgh, where she has -resided, for some time post. A iriend of hers made a few enquiries regarding Beck ot Watson, concerning the rumors' of his second marrii age,' and soon discovered the truth.

YOUNG WAIFS AS COLLECTORS

He attended one of the many open-air meetings conducted by Watson, and here it may be mentioned that a, to say the least of it, extraordinary method of mission working has been disclosed by the S.S.P.C.C. officers. To the knowledge of these gentlemen last Sunday Watson had no fewer than thirty-eight waifs, whose ages ranged from four to fourteen, singing at his meetings. He, it is alleged, sent the children round the crowd with boxes, rewarding them with a trifle of money at the close. To show how well this was known to the officers, it may be mentioned that there was in course of preparation a charge against Watson of utilising the children for the purposes indicated.

The friend of the real wife attended one of the meetings, and secretly interrogated one of the children. He learned all he desired, including the fact that the lady who presided over the musical part of the proceedings was the supposed wife of the missionary. This information he conveyed to Mrs Beck and on, Sunday this lady turned up at the Police Office to have suspicions confirmed. Watson was summoned from his meeting, and in the Police Office faced with his real wife. "WEALTHY AND ARISTOCRATIC."

The most extraordinary stores are in circulation concerning the missionary. He is known to have passed himself off as a .man of wealth, with estates in the North of England, and on this coming to the ears of the police these authorities got into communication with the various titled ladies and gentlemen whose names Wat6on is stated to have used. Letters containing complete contradiction of the stories have been received at the Edinburgh police headquarters, where Watson has in the past been frequently summoned to attend to answer enquiries as to the bona fide nature of the mission.

Various reports of what Watson considered a slanderous nature were put about the city, and to answer these the missionary inserted an advertisement in the pT'ess which offered a reward of £50 for information regarding the alleged slanderers.'

It is probable that one result of the ar« rest will be a complete overhauling of the books of the mission. One feature" of the mission methods was the employment of a band of collectors, who received a handsome commission on each day's drawings. In the books of the mission entries appear Specifying the amounts expended at various times.