FRAUD OVER WREATHS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21099, 5 February 1932, Page 10

FRAUD OVER WREATHS.

GRAVES OF SOLDIERS. FOREIGN METHOD DEPLORED. OFFICIAL WARNING ISSUED. [fiY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION. ) WE LLT N(i TON, Th u rsd ay. In view of coinpluints made to tlic Government by New Zealand residents who have been defrauded by certain overseas firms and persons dealing in tho making of wreaths for graves of soldiers in foreign cemeteries, an official warning lias licpm issued advising: those who have received communications from wreath-sel-lers abroad to lie cautious before placing orders with I hem. Frauds as barefaced as they are despicable are reported to have been perpetrated on several New Zealand people by overseas firms and persons who, among other things, deal in these wreaths. The method is to circularise relatives of soldiers buried in cemeteries stating that for a certain sum the firm would place a beautiful wreath on tho grave of their sou or relative and post a photograph of the gravo with tho wreath upon it, but immediately the photograph has been taken tho wreath is removed to other graves, for which similar orders and remittances have been received and the same process of fraud is pone through over and over again. In deference to complaints made to the Government, bv those defrauded ill this way, (lie Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. A. Hamilton, stated that he would advise all people who had received communications from wreath-sellers abroad to be wary of placing orders. 1 lie Minister said tho only certain method of ensuring that the money remitted was actually used for the purposes intended was to send it to the High Commissioner for New Zealand with a letter giving full particulars of the grave on which it was desired tho wreath should bo placed.