£1,000,000 HOAX

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 838, 5 December 1929, Page 15

£1,000,000 HOAX

ORDERS FOR HOTELS, CARS, YACHTS AND PLANES “QUIET LITTLE MAN” A “quiet, iusigniflcant-looklng little man, of a shy, retiring manner, with pale blue liquid eyes,’’ invariably to be seen wearing a brown suit and a bowler bat a size too big for him, and carrying an attache case, is the central figure in an amazing series of hoaxes in England involving £1,000,000 (says an exchange). Said to be the son of a retired stationmaster in a London suburb, this remarkable man is alleged to have opened negotiations within the last few months with a view to purchasing, among other things, motor-cars to the value of £250.00o; a block of West End fiats at £100.000; one Loudon and four provincial hotels; two yachts for £200,000 from Lieut.Commander Montague GrahameWhite; speed boats and airplanes; a patent bed to be exploited in connection with the purchase of a chain of hotels. The five hotels for which negotiations were opened are situated in London, Liverpool, Sheffield, Nottingham, and Banff. In connection with the reorganisation of British railroads, he wrote to Mr. J. H. Thomas, the Lord Privy Seal, and received from him a communication promising “consideration of his schemes.” He visited the shipping exhibition at Olympia, stating he was connected wtli an organisation known as “The Comus Trust.” He first came into the picture, writes a “Daily Chronicle” representative, on a journey from Belfast early in the summer, when a business acquaintance of the son of the proprietress of the London liotel in which he was later to stay was so impressed with his travelling companion's breadth of vision and charm of manner that the two discussed the establishment of an ambitious travel bureau scheme. This indeed materialised, but not before the originator, the “little man in the brown suit and big howler hat,” had installed himself in . the hotel managed by the mother of his newfound business acquaintance's friend.

Once in the hotel, which is in the West Central district of London, the “litle man” allowed his mind full play. Walking into the showroom of a famous motor-car firm off Oxford Street, W„ he casually inquired after a Rolls-Royce car and other makes. He was taken for runs in various cars, and so impressed were the members of the staff that the potential customer was introduced to Lieut.Commander Montague Grahame-White and Mrs. Grahame-White as a likely purchaser of the commander’s yachts, one of which, the lanara, 1,233 tons, was then lying in Cowes waters. With Commander Grahame-White he quickly established friendly relations. He was a frequent visitor to their West End flat, staying for both dinner and tea. With a view to his purchase of both the lanara and another yacht, Alacrity, he was invited to spend a week-end afloat at Cowes as the guest of the commander and his wife. Wearing his brown suit and bowler hat, he spent, the weekend on the lanara, revealing an expert knowledge of the technical side of yachting, but unfortunately for his peace of mind, a lamentable ignorance of the movement of the sea. Mrs. Grahame-White states that he was ill most of the week-end. He had also taken over the lease of a flat in a new block in New Cavendish Street, had had it furnished with the exception of a bed, and had approached the proprietress of the hotel in which he was staying with an offer of £33,000 for the purchase of the hotel as a going concern.

It was, he explained, to be a stepping off point in a scheme which involved buying hotels at Liverpool—for the Liverpool Hotel he was he said prepared to pay £Ss,ooo—at Banff, Sheffield and Nottingham. Meanwhile, he had launched his hotel scheme and had communicated his ideas on railway reorganisation to the Lord Privy Seal. The hotels were to he run on entirely new' lines, and linked up with a travel service of touring cars, speed boats, airplanes, and a yacht service (presumably the yachts were to be those he was “buying” from Commander Grahame-White) front Belfast to this country. His London activities, apart from the orders tor cars, speed boats, and airplanes, were comparatively modest —they involved merely the purchase of -he block of flats in New Cavendish Street in which he had installed £7O of furniture. In no instance did this remarkable man make any deposit on his “orders.” Never, in fact, did he impress any of his would-be clients with having great wealth at his disposal, and yet all with whom he came into contact were impressed with the story he had to tell. So impressed was the furniture firm in London with whom he was dealing that it made at his design the “special bed” he was to install in his hotels, and supplied him with sufficient furniture for his flat in New Cavendish Street. The "special bed,” priced at £l4, was tried out in his London hotel by the management and voted a great success. Mrs. Grahame-White described him as being “insignificant in appearance, with a slight golden-coloured moustache, a thin neck, and liquid eyes of a very pale blue.” “He was 'shy and very retiring,” she added, “and yet a man who had a vast expert knowledge of motor mechanics. When with us in the lanara, he suggested improvements and innovations which were technically sound. He first stayed at the London hotel on May S. He stayed there until June 26, sleeping there on most nights during the intervening weeks and taking most of his meals there. The proprietress told me an extraordinary story of the man’s activities. “He had been here a few weeks with two young ex-servicemen who were ‘in with him on a travel bureau scheme’ when he casually asked me whether I was prepared to sell my hotel. He mentioned 1 a price of £30,000, and finally offered me £33,000. “When I asked him for details he mentioned his hotel scheme and spoke of a patent bed he would install. I told him I would only sell when he brought me the sum in full. “I gave him permission to begin the travel bureau here, and for a time

it was carried on. Finally he moved. I understand, to his flat in New Cavendish Street. The patent bed was brought here and tried. Since his departure I have paid the makers for it. I have not seen it since.” The manager of the West End motor-car firm said lie also saw him at the Shipping Exhibition. There he offered several large orders for, among other things, speed boats, airplanes and yachts. •*I accused him of having wasted my time, but he replied with his invariably happy smile and rounded on me for not having had sufficient faith in him. “He wrote to me last Friday night and mentioned that he was merely waiting for the ‘Comus Trust’ to have its first board meeting before beginning serious business with me.”