Mysterious Arrest

Levin Daily Chronicle, 12 March 1918, Page 4

Mysterious Arrest

ENGLISH VISITOR APfiUSI HENDED. The Christchurch "Press" states that a gentleman with, influential connections at Home, who recently paid a •visit to New Zealand in respect to tie I export of hides, was upon his arrival m ! Christchurch in receipt of a telegram from a connection of his firm serving , at the front, asking for the remittance of a sum of money. The cablegram further asked the recipient to interview : the parents of a New Zealand friend , of the sender's, and ask them to cable 1 £20 to their son. The gentleman made I enquiries, and ascertained that the New ' Zcalander's people lived in Worcester I Street, Linwood. He saw the mother, ' and was curtly advised by her to interview the father, who was in business at I Lyttelton. To this course the gentle- ; man agreed, and before proceeding to ' his ship waited upon the father and showed him the cablegram. He was immediately confronted by a third person in the room, who stated that he was a constable in plain clothes. The policeman is alleged to have immediately arrested the English visitor, despite his protestations, and to have ignored the latter's request to inspect his passport and to interview the captain of the ship, a person who could easily have proved that he was an accredited representative of the British Government. He was lodged in the Lyttelton lock-up i without further ceremony, and as his : ship was due to sail in a few hours, i things looked black for Mm. Fortun- ; ately his friends in Christchurch heard i of his predicament, and they immedi- ' ately communicated with the authori- | ties, who ordered his release without j further delay, while the constable is stated to have been severely reprimanded by his superior officers. The victim of the unfortunate episode, who is now on his way back to England, has been in the habit of keeping open house for New Zealanders at Home and entertaining them royally, but he now declares that, considering the manner in which he was treated on his first, and he hopes last, visit to the Dominion, he will never entertain a New Zealander again.