ROBBED THE DEAD.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, 29 April 1925, Page 10

ROBBED THE DEAD.

AN ALIEN DEPORTED. The difficulty of deporting undesirable Russians was described at the London Sessions, when Hyam Cohen was sentenced to six months’ hard labour and recommended for deportation for stealing a ring, the property of Louis Schwartz. It appeared that the inen were friends. Wnen Schwartz’s wife died, the prisoner noticed the wedding ring on the finger of the corpse, lie went to the secretary of the Burial Society of the Federation of Synagogues and told him that Schwartz had sent him for the ring. The secretary refused to give up the ring. The prisoner returned with a letter purported to he signed by Schwartz, asking the secretary to give the ring to Cohen. He secured the ring and pawned n for 18s. A detective said that the prisoner came to England from Russia at the age of seven. He was denorted in 1919 at the. age of twenty-two. and returned three years later as a stowaway. Subsequently he was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment and ordered .to he deported. When he completed his sentence lie went to the Russian Trade Delegation, whose secretary requested him to till in a form of application for. Soviet citizenship. ll e refused to do this on account of his treatment at the hands of the Bolsheviks in 1920. The judge expressed astonishment that a Bussian alien must become a Soviet citizen before he could be deported, and said lie was not surprised that so many remained here. He hoped this time that Cohen’s consent would not be asked before he. was deported. He regretted that he could only punish Cohen’s disgusting offence as larceny.