NO NATIONALITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 86, 8 October 1938, Page 10

NO NATIONALITY

MEN BEFORE COURT

ONE LONG! WITH

FORCES

INTERESTING fiISTORIES

(By Air Mail, from "Til c Post's" London Represents;) ive.) LONDON* September 12. Two cases in which the defendants were stated to have,, no nationality were dealt with in London Police Courts on Saturday. Before Mr. Ronald Powell, at the Westminster Police Court, Karl Wilhelm Gebhardt, 48, hotel porter, of Star Road, Fulham, ' appeared on remand on a charge oi: stealing 30s by means of a trick fr* om Harry Dale, licensee of a public!; louse in Brompton Road. At the previous fat earing Gebhardt pleaded guilty. He toj td the Magistrate he lost his nationality by being absent from Germany for teia years. He was remanded to enable the police to investigate his statema nts. Detective Brooks. said that v as a result of his ; inquiries there were apparently one; or two discrepancies in the statemescit of the prisoner. For about twenty-six'; years he masqueraded as a British subject in the assumed name of Char, les Henry Sheppard. In 1914 he obt/\;ined a confidential post at the War Q ffice, but this terminated in June, 193.5. Then he enlisted in the Honoura". de Artillery Company and served with, the Ist Battalion in France until April 1, 1916, when he was given a commissi* m as 2nd lieutenant in the Middlesex Regiment. In 1918, owing to hi s linguistic abilities, he was appoint, .d interpreter at the prisoners of war « amp at Margate, but in June, 1919, he was discharged from the army for being absent without leave. His own si atement that he was demobilised was fi llse. In September of the same year Jj ,c enlisted in the Machine Gun Corps, falsely stating that he had not prey iously served in his Majesty's forces and hiding his identity by using the Christian name of Peter. He was disi .harged on completion of his periotd I of service hi August, 1921. A SPELL IN INDIA. After working in I .ondon, the Isle of Man, and Torquay as a hairdresser for two years he obt. dned a passport in, his assumed name i ii Sheppard and went to Bombay, "whei :e he obtained a position as manager < *f the hairdressing department of the Army and Navy Stores. He worked aX< passage to England in 1931 and contiil ued in the country under his assumed name of Sheppard until August, 19313, when he was charged as an alien i .found in the United Kingdom and; having landed without the permission of an immigration officer. He was *__* >und guilty and recommended for deportation, but in view of the prisoner's services to this country during the w;W • it was decided not to make a deportution order. A restriction order was •! made, however, requiring him to repoirj; at a police station once every week,, and this he had done. The Magistrate sai«4; Gebhardt was a man with an intere.fl ting and almost j unique record, but wha it weighed with him (the Magistrate) . in dealing with him was the fact that \ hat was not the first time he had be* :n convicted of dishonesty. For the { present offence he would go to prison for a month. A WEEKEND '. TICKET. Nicholas Sidoroff, 2s, of 16, Queensborough Terrace, Baya .water, was accused, at Marylebone/1 Police Court, of contravening the Aii' ens' Order by landing without the of the immigration officer. , Detective-Sergeant B&ray, of Scotland Yard, said that the st| :cused first got into England in 1936 I oh a weekend ticket from Ostend and., after going to the Continent for a ii w months, had returned to this countr; t in August last year by the same methc id. Mr. Griffith Jones, i or the defence, said that the accused:; was a member of a wealthy Russian family and his father was an officer i n the old Russian army. In 1917, duJ ring the revolui tion, Sidoroff's motheii* fled the country, along with other ? members of the family, taking the ac« used with her. j What happened to his ii' ather was never I known.

The accused was edt icated in America and France and wai; given a League of Nations passport. \ In 1933 he decided to go to Mosca w to see if he could find his father. Arriving there he gave up his League of Nations passport, and that was the last he saw of it. After six month* in Russia he escaped over the front ier into Poland, and from thence to 'Germany, Italy, and into France.

Major John Grahaif} l Gillam, of 43 Seymour Street, W., j.;aid.the accused desired to marry his il secretary. In response to her appeal; to him and the appeal of the accuse \Vs grandmother, he had come forward -to make an offer of employment, so *l*h at the accused would be self-suppoitfiing.

The Magistrate said that the question of nationality mijj*ht arise, and he asked: "How does a ii lah with no nationality get a national ity?"

Mr. Griffith Jones sei! Id that that was one of the questions fa> s had been asking everybody that ma rning. He gathered that it could be obtained.

The Magistrate said * the accused had committed an offence, but he had not heard anything againa t his character. He therefore did not $ ropose to make any recommendation i for deportation, but would leave that t«a 1 the Home Secretary.

The Magistrate then remanded the accused on bail on W lajor Gilliam's surety of £100 until Ni wember 3.