FORGED PASSES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 14050, 21 July 1916, Page 3

FORGED PASSES.

INCIDENT EST LONDON. , LONDON, June 1. Lieutenant Frederick Codd, Assistant-Provost-Marshal to the New Zealand Expeditionary Force m England, has just made a nbteworthy capture. Recently a number of forged passes have been m circulation, and it was decided to make an attempt to discover the offenders. On Tuesday Lance-Corporal Wennacot and Private Sellars, of the New Zealand Police, met m Waterloo road Thomas Williamson, a porter, of Ley ton. Some conversation ensue.d, m. the course /of which the two soldiers told him they had no passes. ' W'iLliamsoh replied that he thought he ,could get passes for them, and an appointment was made if or the following day. Williamson was accompanied by a private m the Royal West Kent Regiment, who produced a blank pass form: I The four men went to the Strand, where the West Kent man filled up a pass, which Williamson /signed as "T. Williamson, Major Commanding." He received one shilling for his trouble. A second pass was also filled up by the West Kent man, and signed "J. H. King (Major)." The two men were then given into the custody of the civil police. The prisoner Williamson told Police-Sergeant Wesley that he had been at the front, and was absent-minded. He said* he 'thought he was doing the soldiers a good turn." Lieutenant Codd said that the Royal West Kent man would be -'tried by court, martial. . . The magistrate sentenced Williamson to three months' hard labor, and said that the next offender would have six months.