STARVING NOBLEMAN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20318, 28 January 1928, Page 13

STARVING NOBLEMAN.

RUSSIAN COUNT’S POVERTY. LIFE IN A BEACH HOVEL. A Russian count has been sharing a hovel on tie foreshores of Carrington beach, Newcastle, New South Wales, withl a number of down-and-out sailors. The appalling condition of some of the sailors who hare been paid off from their ships at Newcastle was revealed last week when a stabbing affray attracted attention to the beachcombers at Carrington (says a Sydney paper). In hollows in the sand, in disused pipes, and even under worn-out coal trucks, these men of the sea exist. In the daytime they collect food wherever it is offering. Sometimes they are sup. plied by brother seamen from ships in port, and occasionally they do odd jobs for a few shillings; but every night, wet and fine, they huddle in their bleak resting places, using old newspapers for covering* until another dawn breaks. Known to his mates as “ Stiffy.’’ Counfi Kherson, a Russian aristocrat, experienced the pangs _of hunger and the miseries of the long nights in a hole in the sand. Nobody knew “ Stiffy’s ” real name until a few day* ago, when he confided it to a companion in distress. “Stiffy” had found a ship and was leaving port that night. He produced papers to prove hie identity. During the war “ Stiffy ” served with a crack British regiment, was three times wounded, and, for conspicuous bravery, was decorated by the King. He went to England before the war, but a desire to again reach his homeland forced him into a merchant ship when hostilities ceased. Three months ago he came to Newcastle, was influenced by his companions to leave his ship in a search for shore work, failed miserably, and had lived on starvation rations ever since.