TRAGEDY AVERTED.

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18778, 28 October 1932, Page 4

TRAGEDY AVERTED.

MAN’S STRANGE STORY. “ORDERED TO SHOOT K.C.” Arrested In the office of Mr W. A. Holman, K.C., a man who was later taken to the Reception House, told the police a remarkable story of having been told by the Prince of Wales that If he were not given £150,000 be would have to shoot Mr Holman, says a Sydney paper. ■\Vhen the man entered Mr Holman soffice in Phillip Street, he - brushed past the secretary, entered the main room, and sat clown. lie demanded to see Mr 111 Oman, who was out. When asked his name the stranger, who was very well-dressed and spoke in a cultured voice, presented a card, on which he had'written his name, prefixing the title “Sir.” He said he was a knight, and then related his business. The upshot was that the police were called. “When the Prince of Wales was here,” the man said, “I saved him from being bombed, and I was promised a reward on my 75th birthday. To-day Is the day," > He declared that the Prince bad promised him £150,000, to be collected that day through Mr Holman — who incidentally, knevv nothing of the matter —and that if the money were not paid over he was to shoot Mr .Holman., Must Do It! "And If I don’t shoot-Mr Holman the Prince of Wales is going to shoot me!" confided the man. It was not long after this that two policemen from the Clarence street ■station arrived, In response to a (Continued in next Column.)

’phone call; and they took the man to the Reception House, Where he Was charged under the Lunacy Act. He was formerly a business man living in a northern suburb, ahd has been very worried In recent months. Mr Holman, fortunately, was appearing for “Wizard" Smith in the £20.000 libel action against “Smith’s Weekly," and had left bis chambers at 9.50 a.m.