GERMAN SCANDAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9641, 5 November 1909, Page 5

GERMAN SCANDAL.

THEFTS PROM NAVAL \ YARDS. TRIAL OP ACCUSED. 1 HUGE PROFITS MADE BY MERCHANTS. United Press Association—Electric Telegraph Copyright. Received November 4, 9.35 p.m. BERLIN, November 4. In connection with the German naval frauds, the trial has begun of four naval yard officials at. Kiel, and h've Kiel and Hamburg merchants. The thefts included whole waggon loads of new armour plati^c?. ■Hemrich, the pnncip-d official concerned, has lielo an api ointment in the yard for 54 years. The navy yard officials dtni=d their guilt. One of the Hamburg merchants implicated Bdmitted that huge profits were made at the expense of the Imperial Navy yard, owing to confusion, mismanagement and offici 1 ignorance of values and prices. Thus bronze and brass were thrown together and sold at a common price. Dealers chose the best, leaving the rest to be auctioned, fixing the up set price and not bidding against each other.

It is stated that £50,000 worth of material has been stolen during the past two or three years from the naval yards at Kiel, and several prominent Kiel and Hamburg merchants are charged with receiving the stolen goods from naval officers. the offeneces charged include falsification of weight tallies. One hundred witnesses have been subpoenaed.