STORY OF BED RUSSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20072, 9 October 1928, Page 9

STORY OF BED RUSSIA.

PRISONERS FROM BRITAIN. •'. , , | MONEY LENT BY POLES. CLAIM AGAINST THE CROWN, A picture of the conditions under which distressed members of tho British community in Moscow lived during tho revolution in 1919 was sketched to Mr. Justice Rowlatt in a London Court recently. The matter camo before the Court on Petitions of Right by two Polish merchants, Chaim Rapaport and Adan Stein, who claimed the repayment of the English equivalent of 3,000,000 roubles, which they alleged were lent by them or their representatives to the British Committee in Moscow for providing food and clothing for British prisoners of war and destitute members of the British community. Mi-. D. N. Pritt, K.C., for the suppliants, said the case had a touch of revolutionary romance. Tho Rev. Frank W. North, to whom the money was lent on behalf of the British Committee, was British chaplain in Moscow, and head of tho committee set up to get funds for tho re-" lief of the British refugees who flocked 'j into Moscow for protection. The committee acted with tho express authority of tho Crown. Mr. H. M. Giveen, for the Crown, said that it was not disputed that tho Government was legally responsible for what Mr. North did. Sir. Pritt said that he did not suggest that the action of his clients and others like them in advancing funds to the committee was philanthropic. It was a mutual advantage. The money was lent on receipts which provided for the repayment of the money in London at the best rate of exchange, and this was of great advantage to the lenders, because it was a means of saving their property from the Soviet. At a later stage in 1920 people in Russia poured . money, jewellery, cabbages, and everything on to Mr. North in tho hope of protecting them from the Soviet. Mr. Justice Rowlatt: What means had he t>f protecting their property ? Mr. Pritt: He spent it on the refugees. Mr. Giveen: And rati grav>s risks himself. " ' Murdered on the Frontier. Mr. Pritt said that Stein lent 250.000 roubles, worth between £IOOO and £I7OO, to Mr. North, who had since died, and received a receipt which ho kept concealed in his flat in Moscow for a long time. When he escaped to Poland he entrusted the receipt to his two daughters, who, he believed, would have a better chance of smuggling it out of Russia. The two daughters and David Rapaport, the son of the other claimant, set out for Poland, but at tho frontier were all murdered. He could not prove the murders, though the Crown admitted that those persons died on the date Btated, and he could not prove with strictness that they had tho receipt with them, but the evidence would show almost certainly that they had. Stein therefore would ask the Court to say that he had given all the evidence ho could that the money was lent, and that, notwithstanding the absence of the receipt, the money should be paid by the Crown. . As to the Rapaport case, the petitioners were Chaim and Leopold Rapaport, grandfather and grandson. They and David Rapaport were partners m a business in Warsaw until the German advance, when they moved to Moscow. There they supplied to Mr. North the money now claimed out of the partnership funds. The only member of the firm who had any--thing to do with the loan was David, who was killed on the frontier,. Life Risked Every Time. With regard to the defence, Mr. Pritt said that lie did not say a word against the Crown because it was necessary to be very careful in these matters. The Crown was simply putting the suppliants to the proof of their claims, and' also pleaded that it was an express or implied condition that there should be no payment until tho receipts were delivered up. Jacob Aronstein, a merchant now in Berlin, said that he was in Moscow in 1919 and knew Mr. David Rapaport. He was very friendly with Mr. North and advanced money to his committee. He also handed him sums advanced by other persons, including Mr, Rapaport. In each case he received a receipt from Mr. North and conveyed it to Mr. Rapaport. Mr. Rapaport also roubles on behalf of Mr. Stein. Cross-examined by the Attorney-Gen-eral, Mr. Aronstein said that he endangered his life every time he went to Mr. North. After a consultation between the parties, Mr. Pritt announced that the Crown had agreed to absent to judgment for Mr. Stein for £312 10s, and for Messrs. Rapaport for £l7lß ss. In approving tho settlement, Mr. Justice Rowlatt said that no one could be surprised that the cases had been brought" to proof. -