“A NEAR KINSMAN”

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 149, 19 March 1921, Page 11

“A NEAR KINSMAN”

LETTER FROM MADRID

APPEAL TO WELLINGTON BUSINESS HAN

Tho "Spanish prisoner" scheme, rf<nilar to the "Society of Kink Yoteng Hearts,” conducted by benevolent "Unck' Joseph,” in the lan. Hay novel, according to the Auckland "Star” has been explained to an Auckland merchant, who in the course of a heart-rending letter from Madrid, was told that by assisting the daughter of a wealthy political prisoner, whoso wealth is in England, he could obtain a quarter of the fortune, amounting to £21,422. Strangely enough, tho same wording is used and the same terms offered, in a letter that was received recently by Mr. A. D. Kennedy, a Wellington business man, whose firm has on occasions . done business with Spanish mofohants i and vineyard owners. The letter was t enclosed in an envelope bearing ui? words "La Molturador Espanola," and ■ . attached to it is a cheaply-printed bnsi- ; ness card purporting to be that of hra . . Amadeo Roldan, Lista Corrcos, Soria, ; chaplain of the prison in which the writer —who, bv the way, writes a ner- ■ feet hand, in black ink, that savours of lithography—explains that he was, ■ fore the revolution, a commander of - military administration, of nowhere in i particular. However, he says: Being !. placed in very grave situation, and I i cannot by myself resolve a great strongi gle that sorround me, I take tho liberty . to write to you the first and. perhaps • the last time due to my grave health, ■ although I am know to you when I say you that my death mother, Mrs. Anna, was your near kinswoman you will know our relationship." At this stage the writer proceeds to go into voluminous details as to his military service on the side of the Allies during the Great War: and after explaining that his pro-British sympathies led him to be arrested by the renctmnary troops, ho then, according to himself, "put his private fortune, amounting to £85,700 in London, before I am arrest, in a sure bank of London, but saying that said money of mine could be paid in any branch of the bank in your country, which bank gave me warranty of it a cheque payable io bearer, transferred for to collect it in your country, where I was going to life.” , Ho goes on to say that as a result ot his imprisonment (by the way, the priest of tho prison has consented by this time to get the letter out of tho prison) a I his valuable luggage has been impounded, and his daughter in a boarding school m England is unable to reach her lather to comfort him in his durance vile. Then comes the request: “Will you then redeem my luggage and take charge of my daughter by coming bore by the next steamer? You can recover my fortune when you to England come, and 1 and tho priest will net with legal representation, for I shall call a notary and shall name you my daughter’s guardian. . . I will reward you for your good service by tho sum of £21,422, the fourth part of my fortune and interest. . - - You will understand my anxiety to hear from you. I beg you send ma a cablegram if you determine to come here to Spain, send mo a cablegram telling me Await instructions embark,’ and your name. . Answer mo by cable and not nj letter, because in this form which I say vou nothing may be discovered, and in the other manner the letter could be discovered it and at the same time if I before to have received one letter. Write, honoured Sir, to the address of the good priest, which his card J have given jou. —Enrique de Fonseca.” "The cablegram trick and the story about the luggage is a very old one, said 'r. Kennedy to a Dominion reporter yesterday.. "I suppose that if 1 did send the cable and decided to redeem’ the luggage, I would in a few days get at cable telling me to send three or four hundred pounds in order to pay 'such-and-such a debt in connection with tho bank draft or the luggage. The man that wrote the letter roust be a pretty simple criminal, because the date has been witten ini an entirely different handwriting to the rest of tho letter, the ink used being also different. Needless to say, I shall not help the daughter of “Enrique de Fonseca, nor will accept the fortune of my kinsman by 'Mrs. Anna’s side.