NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 February 1922, Page 1

NEWS BY MAIL.

GIRL’S BODY UNDER THE BED.

BUDAPEST, Dec. 20

The passing of sentence of death here tin an ironworker, Robert Rusznyak for the murder of Iris fiancee, described as a pretty telephone girl, has cleared up a mystery that has been exciting Budapest for several tfreeks.On November .10 a chambermaid at the Hotel Hamburg while tidying a big bedroom on the first floor found a bulky tiling under the double bod. Sbe pulled it out and next moment swooned with a shriek of terror. It was a young woman, dead and with no clothing except a silk chemise. Subsequent investigations showed that the corpse had been under the lied for three days and that the room bad been occupied in the interval by a newiv married couple.

At the trial linsznynk maintained that lie loved the girl, whom he had intended to marry next month, hut he could not stand her flirtations wi'h other men. When lie rebuked her at the hotel she replied contemptuously, and this made him so furious that he seized her throat and pressed it till she was dead. H.e hid the body under the bed and slipped out of the hotel early in the morning. MARK PROFITEERS. BERLIN, Dec. 20. The fall of the mark and the consequent cheapness of goods in Germany has created a new class oi petty foreign profiteers. They come here and buy miscellaneous collections of articles, and return home with their portmanteaux full of things on which a handsa:; c ;v lit can be made. I met one yesterday in a train travelling to England with silk stockings, handbags, cameras and medical instruments. As the hand luggage is not examined by Germans on the Belgian frontier he managed to take tl*e spoil nit of Germany without any authorisation. The German authorities are now taking measures against these irregularities. The law is. that nothing can be exported from Germany without a license. Even to send a book abroad one must obtain a licence and, if the book is sent to England, pay the Government 200 pc • cent of its value. U.S. RUSSIAN CONTRACTS. NEW YORK, Dec. 20. Several large contracts, involving the supply of foodstuffs and the exploitation of mines and other natural resources of Russia, have been concluded, the New York World learns, between the Soviet

government and a "roup of American business men representing large industrial concerns. The contracts, which are stated to have been signed by MM. Lenin, Litvinoff, and Bogdanoff (the President of the Council of National Economy),, ark' understood to provide for the abolition of many restrictions hitherto placed on foreign firms wishing to do business in Russia. Employees of American firms will be allowed to travel in Russia without hindrance. It is understood that the Soviet Government guarantees the security of money invested in undertakings during the period of 20 years lor which the concessions are granted. Americans also have the right to deposit currencies in Russian State banks. “SEX SLAVERY.” BERLIN, Dec. 21. Scientific experts have turned the court-house at Ilirschberg, Silesia, where Peter Grupen is Weing tried for the murder of his niece Dorothy Rolnbacli, the Ifi-years-old heiress of Klepplesdorf Castle and of her 10-years-old

cousin Ursula Schade, into a university fecture-room. The public seemed thoroughly to enjoy the long discourses on psychology, hypnotism, and auto-sug-

gestion. Handwriting experts agreed Uhat

little Ursula’s farewell letter to her grandmother was actually written by her and that the letters from Grupen’s wife before her mysterious disappearance are genuine. Asked whether he considered the woman had been psychologically influenced, one expert argued that as Frau Grupen must have been under the stress of emotion before leaving her husband, mother, an<| children, and the letters were unemotional, she must have been under the

influence of another person while writing tltiem. The doctor held, however, that Grupen influenced his wife, mother-in-law, and others by suggestion, and pointed out that numerous girls fell in love with him. Ursula’s devotion to Grupen was, the doctor said, a ease of what scientists term li sex slavery.” For a short time the court-house was darkened while photographs of the bodies of the two girls were thrown on a screen by a magic-lantern and Dr Peters indicated where the shots bad entered. Dorothy’s red summer dress was hung on a dressmaker’s dummy in order that the court could see the rent made by tlie shot. Dr Peters held that it was impossible for Ursula’s wound to have been self-inflicted. The verdict is expected on Tuesday.