KIWIS TAKEN DOWN BY “CON” MAN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 13, 16 January 1946, Page 4

KIWIS TAKEN DOWN BY “CON” MAN

INCIDENT AT COLOMBO CASH PAID FOR GOODS THAT WERE NOT DELIVERED

A Wanganui serviceman who returned with the draft on the liner Otranto related yesterday how a large number of ‘‘Kiwi” servicemen were taken down by a confidence man at Colombo, and'this despite their long experience with Italian black marketeers. They ''fell'' to the tune of £lOO. It all began when a well-dressed English-speaking native came on board to take orders for certain commodities which he undertook to purchase ashore and deliver aboard ship. It was a good story, and the hoys were in the mood to believe it. They thought it. would be excellent to take a few of the wares of Ceylon back tn New Zealand with them.

Cigars he could get at sfl for 10s. tea 21b for 7s 6d, ebony elephants (not lhe white variety) for 10s apiece, and plentiful supplies of fruit and other delicacies. The confidence man went round one of the mess decks and raked in the cash as fast as a totalisator. "It was just like the Kiwis doing the poor Italian civvies in the eye with W.D. goods—but. of course, the other way round,” said the Wanganui man. Fortified with dozens of orders and cash, the bland native went ashore. The soldiers waited patiently for the bread they had cast on the waters to come hack as buttered toast and tea. By late afternoon their envoy had nor returned, and the anxious investors began to get s.uspicious. They were still waiting when the ship was ready to leave, and they then realised that they had bee* "taken for a ride." They swore a bit about the salesman and his relations but, seeing the joke, they told their story so that future troopships could he warned.