Alleged Emigration Swindle.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3403, 7 January 1890, Page 2

Alleged Emigration Swindle.

i A SENSATIONAL TRIAL. At Wadowice, in Galicia, a trial t was opened on Novomber 14 which t promises, says a correspondent, to be ) very interesting, It arisris out.ot the scandalous doings of 65 persons who are charged with having for ten years ... I carried on a thriving trade by fleecing emigrants, Among tho-accused avo I persons of all ranks, ibe first on the list being a district governor. The Imperial counsel asserts that a Police Comniissiqner and Custom House officer has for years been busily • occupied in founding ageuoies for ( * emigration, and has used his authority solely for extorting money from his unhappy victims, and sor aiding deserters to leaVe the army, A number of other Custom House officials ara accused of being employed in' this sliainelesa traffic, and the gendarmes acted ts touts, and were paid so much for each emigrant, This district is on the frontiers ot Germany Austria, and Hungary, and persons in all these countries are implicated::, in the affair. The prisoners are accused of having fostered -and" encouraged emigration, and robbed tbeperaons'they persuaded to emigrate: of what little means they bad. Until quite lately, Oswiecira, wheri all these doings took place, was the only Galician ; frontier which had ' communication with the ports of Germany, and'shipping agents bad , . long directed their attention to.tho • • place. At first the business < was carried on fairly enough and by their legitimate business.of selling tho tickets the agents bad obtained as much as 32,000 murks, in one year, only, aud the price they took for . the railway, tickets"-to Hamburg yielded almost as much again. They ; obtained reduced prices for the emi- . graute from the railway authorities, ' j but/of course, made the peasants pay the full price. But after some years several agencies which had bjon started to cooipete' wijtli .dacli | other, and each attempted to deprive } the ethers of their cifatomera, It, was. then that the alleged malprac- " > tices began and that, the. : ' officials - \yj=re drawn into!. ; the : [ affair, mlio, under pretext of giving ■ 1 .the emigrants their rights, helped one : ' 1 party, to rob them. When an grant wa? a deserter he hail to .pay ' whatever'was asked for his ticket.to.', 1 America, in some cases as much as 201, \ If ho rofused he was threatened with ' being delivered up to. the military ' authorities. Ono of the secretaries had ! 3D alarm clock whtch.he. used-in {ho following maimer.', ?-Wheri anyone had been brought to »pply for a ticket ' to America the alarm.dock was made : '/ ' to ring, This was don't! to make tho 1 intending emigrant believe that a 1 tnlegram had lieeri sent'%flaml>ui'g 1 to ask whether there was room oil j board' a s ve?sdl.; -Aftu'r five (minutes; il- - the. clock tinkled again, and this 'i 1 announced tho answer that there was just one berth left. Tho applicant' ' 1 had to pay for tho two-telegrams, ; ■ Then another telegram was sent to 1 tho 'Emperor of America,.' to inquire ' 1 whether lie was disposed- to accept 1 tbisparticulareiiiigrant,, The answer 1 was always in.tho affirmative, and was paid for, Ono agent's eon, dressed as a military doctor, examined young emigrants, and for a consideration ' agreed'ito deelhre'theni unfit to onter >, 1 the American army, finally, pafe '' ports for America were pokl for 10 and 20 florinp. Then the unhappy dupes 1 were induced to. buy tho so-called American costume," basides an "outfit for the,ship, which was rubbish.. In ( ■ one year 5,799 emigrants.who, should have done military service in Austria, Were dispatched by these agents. The caa'o will last several weeks, as about four hundred 'witnesses' haveilo .be-i examined.