Bold Bid Fails

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 145, 22 June 1939, Page 12

Bold Bid Fails

DANCER SEEKING- BRITISH NATIONALITY George Hollingsworth, a London hawker, stood in drizzling rain outside a Piccadilly hotel trying to sell buttonholes to passers-by. “Buy a flower, lady?’’ he asked a beautiful girl in expensive furs who came out of the hotel. “Will you marry me'.”’ was her reply. And that was how 38-year-old George Hollingsworth began an adventure which ended iu a nine months’ prison sentence at the Old Bailey. He dumped his unsold flowers and walked into the girl’s £3-a-dny suite. “My name is Herta Bit tel,” she said. “I am a professional dancer, an Austrian, and I want to marry an Englishman and gain British nationality, because I am having difficulty in ronewing my passport. “I will make you my manager. 1 will give you £5 down and £2O after the marriage.” An hour later they entered the office of Mr. Joseph. Bond, superintendent

registrar at Caxton Hall, Westminster. “We want to get married as soon as possible, ” they said. George filled up the application form, stating that ho was a bachelor, and paid the two-shilling fee. When they had gone Mr. Bond reached for his telephone. Within 24 hours Scotland Yard knew all about George. They had discovered he already had a wife and seven children. The Aliens Department gave them full information about Herta. The marriage between the dancer and the flower seller did not take place. Instead George was arrested. Herta sailed for the Continent. In court later George pleaded guilty ty making a false marriage declaration. He received his scutence with a worried frown.