ORPHAN OF STORM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22712, 26 October 1935, Page 18

ORPHAN OF STORM

RUSSIAN REFUGEE’S ADVENTURES Waif of the Russian revolution, a world wanderer who has met with strange adventures in war and peace, and is still unable to find a country to give him refuge, George Henry Shelking, otherwise George Verey described as a native of Russia, recently found a temporary rest-ing-place at Bath—on remand in police custody. The story of his roamings > was told when he was charged with failing to produce a certificate of registration under the Aliens Act, 1920. Superintendent Ashworth told the magistrates that the mau was found in Bath, and as his answers to questions seemed rather vague he was taken to the police station, and then to hospital. The man did not deny that his name was Shelking. His story was that he was born in 1904 —he believed in Liverpool, of British parents. At the end of 1917 he was with his mother and sister in Petrograd. His father was a farmer in Russia, and was shot by the Red soldjers, and the farm was looted. In 1919 his mother and sister died of typhus. He went to the Crimea and served in General Wrangels army. When that force was disarmed he went to Finland and stayed until 1922. He was wounded there, and had shellshock while serving in the Finnish White Army on the Russian frontier. He was discharged from that army and went to Cologne, where he was given the post of interpreter in the Royal Corps of Signals, being discharged on the evacuation of the British troops. He next appeared in Sweden, and afterwards went to England as a British subject. Certain matters then arose, and he left the United Kingdom and travelled to France, Spain and Gibraltar. In 1929 he was in the United States, and was deported as an alien in 1930. He went to Copenhagen, and was arrested m Heligoland and charged with attempting to obtain military secrets, but the charge was not proceeded with. Ho wag escorted to the Finnish frontier and then to the Belgian frontier. The Belgians handed him over to the French authorities, and lie then went to Spain, subsequently travelling to Constantinople, Sofia, Belgrade. Vienna and Switzerland. The Swiss took him to the Austrian border, and the Austrians sent him to the Jugoslavian border. He returned to Switzerland, and subsequently to Novwav. In 1932 he returned to England in a" motor boat from Finland. He had plenty of money and went to London. Journeying to Ireland, lie camped in a tent, and when near Galway Bay be tell over a cliff and was unable to recollect fully bis subsequent movements, but he remembered travelling in a train and in a boat, arriving, be believed, at Liverpool. Finally he went to Bristol by road and on to Bath. , , ~ Superintendent Ashworth added that they believed that the mau wag an alien. An order had been made by which certain conditions should have been complied with but these had not been fulfilled. He was unable to produce bis identity book. The man, who stated he had no money and no friends, was remanded in custody for inquiries to be made at the Home Office and other places.