YOUNG FARMER WHO VANISHED IN LONDON.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18009, 20 November 1926, Page 10

YOUNG FARMER WHO VANISHED IN LONDON.

f" (Special to the “Star.”) LONDON, September 25. The mysterious disappearance from Southampton of a young Australian farmer, Mr C. E. H. Ritchie, who landed from the steamer Tainui on Wednesday, has been solved. Yesterday afternoon, the young man’s father, whose home is at St. Heliers, Jersey, and who had come to London in the search for his son, was informed that the young man had returned to Southampton. The father at once went there. A strange feature of the affair is that • the came morning Mr Ritchie, then at Southampton, had received a postcard from his son saying that he was in London and penniless. The message went on:— I am sorry to tell you that T am in a very serious position. I came < to London yesterday to pass the ■\ time away with £2, one of which I

spent, and the other—well, I cannot account for the loss of it, unless it was stolen from me when I was going down the Tube train. I happened to go up and tell a Johnny my position, and he gave me this card. That was all I asked him for, but he gave me two shillings as well. I could not book rooms, so I had to stop out. On the address side of the postcard was written:— I haven’t had a meal since yesterday’s lunch. The young man had lunched at a Southampton hotel, at which his father had arranged to meet him, before walking out into the street and vanishing. A member of the family told a “Daily Chronicle” representative that Mr Ritchie, jun., was not expected to have a large sum in his possession, but should have had more than £2.