FORGERS TRAPPED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 June 1941, Page 6

FORGERS TRAPPED

BIG POLITICAL PLAN. BRITISH NOTES FAKED. I Tiie disappearance of a score of foreigners from their usual haunt —a ' small cafe in Pera —is the first indication of a big coup by Turkish political police (writes the Istanbul correspondl ent of the "Evening Standard.’ Lon- | don >. i The foreigners were members of a I group who had successfully defied the ■ police of Bulgaria. Rumania and YugoI Slavin. They have been issuing counterfeit British £lO. £5 and £1 notes in enormous quantities. The whole gang has now been rounded up. including their chief, who i arrived in Istanbul from Milan wun a new consignment of forged notes. Tlicre is strong reason to believe that the affair has on important political background and that it was part of a j deliberate attempt to debase British currency. About £150,000 worth of faked notes were placed in Istanbul alone, apart from sums which had been put into circulation in the Balkans and Near East. Some went to Bagdad. Among those arrested is a member! of tlie staff of a certain South Amcri-' can Legation, another of whoso mem- , bors is known to have littil close roia-j [ions with certain German circles j which in tlie past have gained note- ; ricty for secret service activity. The; gang included a number of good- ■ looking women, who ill lull fids?' passports from half a dozen countries. I T'ne gang also traH'ickcd in fakedpassports, mainly British. Their ccun- ! terlTit notes were < f ,v.<> types, one an | indifferent forgery known to hove’ come from Italy, and tile other goad.. believed to have been made in Ger- i many. Tlie notes were usually sold to tier-; sons about, to leave Turkey, who. after, smuggling them out in defiance fit" j Turkish regulations, were unable to I take any action when they discovered' that tlie notes were false.