CHARGE OF CONSPIRACY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18550, 7 November 1923, Page 9

CHARGE OF CONSPIRACY.

STRANGE SYDNEY CASE.

USB OF DRUGS ALLEGED.

Australian and N.Z. Gable Association. -.J. 7.10 p.m.) SYDNEY. Nov. 6. The trial has commenced at the Quarter Sessions of James Thomas Jones and Charles Edwin Jones on a charge of con spiracy to defraud Captain Warren, master mariner, and the mortgagee and solicitors of a station property of divers large sums of money. Evidence giver by Captain Warren and others at the tiaiu of the committal of the accused was to the effect that Captain Warren was kept in confinement for a considerable time in a drugged state while his property was being gradually taken from him. Evidence for the Crown at the trial was that J T. Jones represented to the mortgagee and solicitors of a property that he had been delegated by Warren to represent him for it; purchase, while C. E. Jones represented himself as a nephew of Warren and prospective manager of the propjrty. Subsequently the two accused signed documents for tba purchase and transfer of the property in the name r.t Warren. Failure to meet a proinissor;r note for £500 on the due date led to disclosures that resulted in the present proceedings.

On behalf of Captain Win-en it w.is alleged tint he did not authorise the accused to negotiate or sign any docu. rnents for Kim.

Josephine Heiss gave evidence that for a year sho acted as housekeeper for Captain Warren and J. T. Jones. The former never left the house, but he was in the sama mental condition as at present. ,

"I have been in a drugged condition for about two years. I can remember having lived at many different places, but I was always watch carefully. Two men and a woman have been with me. I was under their influence. There is a financial side to the matter, for an amount of over £1000 is involved." This startling statement, made some weeks .• go to detectives »n Sydney by Captain Warren, led to the present proceedings. Captain Warren was formerly connected with one of the big shipping companies in England, and was for years ensracod in the Atlantic passenger end caruo trade. This was prior to the war. On the outbreak of hostilities he was attached to the Navv. and commanded a transport which took Australian soldiers t( Gallipoli. -At the conclusion of the war be was in England, and later he was enlaced by a N nr weinari shipninc company to represent it in the Pacific Islands and to deal in plantations and the ronra tiade. He fulfilled this mission, visiting Ps.T'll-i. Gilbert Islands and Marshal] Islands.

Coining to Svdner, lie decided to re (urn to the Pacific Islands, nnd was negotiating to purchase a schooner for in.-, business when, coord in" to his story. he happened to f;.l| i,, with a man at 'a lodine hotel. Prints were taken, and business discussed. From then on. stated Canton Warren, ho was in a drupes] cond'tioii for nearly two years. It seemed to him that he was drugged and kept in th*»t state.

Tie captain's wife lives in England, and not bavins; had a letter from her husband for some time she wrote to th» lie.->d of p.. shipping company in Sydney, -iskinir him to trc and trace the where! abouts of liar husband. In Order in tiv and jet Into touch with the captain, it was derided hv lh-3 police and the shtpnim: officials to advertise a position of captain on an island host as vacant so an 1c tempt him to replv and give his .iddress. ITe did not answer the advertisement, b»t another man mnde, an inmmv for him, with (lie result that the iK-lice tra".->d the >ni«iii2 contain to a revm in the city. Thev took charge of i.'.ru. and also traced linkage of his p< the Central railway station, where it ha" been for two yoan