INHUMANE FRAUD ON REFUGEES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 71, 23 November 1914, Page 2

INHUMANE FRAUD ON REFUGEES.

RUSSIANS ROBBED OF MONEY SENT BY FRIENDS. COPENHAGEN, Sept. 1. A great war swindle, devised by some inhumane genius whom the Copenhagen police are hoping to track down, has inflicted financial suffering and misery on many Russian refugees who have arrived here from Germany. Forging the name of a Russian official sent to Copenhagen to assist these wretched people, the swindler —who, 1 should state is not a Dane-- has takeradvantage of the paralysed postal service to extract from the refugees moneys sent by friends and relatives in Russia and Germany. This good Samaritan has now, i am informed, cleared off with several .thousand roubles Copenhagen for some weeks has been the asylum for hordes of Russian peasants and industrial workers who escaped ill-treatment in Germany, and have been living comfortably under the protection of this hospitable nation. Over and over again Russian authorities have thanked the Danish people for sheltering these exiles. The swindler, who has an accomplice, managed to learn the methods of assisting the refugees, and his fraud was not discovered till the Russian official received letters from different persons informing him that money bad already been sent. A large number of the refugees have satled away to America, many of them leaving behind them ruined '•ernes and careers and lost friends, to start a new life in a neutral country.