Thursday
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
The Last
Last Of The Share-Pushers Sentenced
January 19, 1939.
EX-CIRCUS CLOWN WITH 2 YACHTS ADMITS £250,000 SWINDLE
He Tricked Jacob Factor
THE last of the "big time" share pushers disappeared recently when 40-years-old John Marsden Firth, ex- soldier, ex-circus clown—once worth £200,000—was sen- tenced at the Old Bailey to four years' penal servitude.
Firth, the man who double crossed nrchswindler Jacob Fac- tor, was found guilty, with William Henry Broughton, 66-years- old secretary, of conspiring to defraud through a firm known as Sir John Seton and Co.
Broughton was sentenced to two years' and Edgar Godfrey Dickenson, aged 47, a clerk, to 18 months' im- prisonment.
From £200,000 to a penny Were the varying fortunes of Firth-bald, loquacious associate of Tanfield and Spiro (bolh serving sentences share-pushing.)
for
he
Born In Swinton, Lancashire, Joined the Army when he was 15. Returning to
family's well- established cotton business, the pro- digal con found it was not goaltend enough for him. He started tures of his own, and gambling In collon futures brought him in £200,- 000.
IN A CIRCUS
ven-
His generosity accounted for thou- sands of pounds, and he walked about with his pockets bulging with, Treasury notes.
With his £15,000 yachts, Elaine I and Elaine 11. his luxury dinner Parties £150 a time for flowers Blown specially from the south of France he soon found himself re- duced to £70,000.
12,000 Miles
For Job He Did Not Get
Peter Joseph Luni, 15-years-old Capetown schoolboy, thought he would like to work in England,
He arrived at Southampton re- cently in the finer Athlone Casile. But his view of Britain was a 150 yards' walk across the docks to the Warwick Castle. And 10 hours after he had arrived he was on the 6,000-miles trip home again.
For, after walking about with an air of assurance durlag the first day out, Peter had confessed, when questioned, that he had stowed away.
Ils return Journey he will spend working in the ship's kitchen.
With that sum he came to London, ANTARCTIC FORECASTS
he squandered it in riotous!
bad Investments,
Then for a time he turned to pantomimes, which he staged on a Brighton pier.
PLANNED
SYDNEY, N. S. W. Plans to set up 12 meteorological Gradually he lost his money, and stations in the Antarctic are under from owning and raging horses under way, Sir Hubert Willdns, the famous Jockey Club and Pony Turf Club Australian explorer said OII bis rules, Firth found himself reduced arrival here from the United States. to becoming a clown in a circus and living
in a showman's caravan. Then he turned to share-pushing He began a financial paper in which be cleverly attacked the shares offered by Jacob Factor, who es- United States after enped to the swindling the British public of thou-) sands of pounds.
to circulate
the
all he did, was to produce about 100 dummy papers for Factor's benefit while continuing paper and the attacks.
From that me Firth came right Into the "swim" of share-pushing.
He has admitted obtaining £250,- 000 from the investing public,
He left the dock a satisfied man, into touch with Firth, and for £5,000; for he had confessed that he expect- Firth agreed to stop his attack. Butjed five years,
Factor became annoyed, and
The change which has come over Berkeley Square la emphasised by the Air Ministry's new premises at Berkeley Square House which Sic Kingsley Wood opened recently. Although the destruction of familiar buildings is to be regretted, it must be admitted that the new building will offer relief to the Increasing staff of the Alr Ministry. The offices will be decupled by the Directorate of Contracts and other important departments.
Boy Of 13 Builds Telescope
PHILIP Pomper, 13-year-old son of an East London taller, la buliding a alx-inch telescope as part of his school work.
Small for his age, serious-eyed, he Is the best metal worker at the Jews" Free Boys School, Spitalfelds, E.I.! The Job will take him six months, and every part of it is being done with his own hands except casting the metal and silvering the mirror.
For weeks he has been polishing the mirror with finer and flier grades of powder to get the correct curva- ture for reflecting the light of moon and planets.
SOLAR SYSTEM MODELLED Phillp's telescope will be a field ad- junct to the school's planetarium, where the boys have built against the ceiling a working scale model of the, solar system which can be set rolat- Ing-the earth, Venus and Mors about the sun, the moon about the earth- by operating a switch,
"Give a boy a real job of work and you'll have no trouble with class- room duliness," said the headmaster. Dr. E. Bernstein.
Much of the time his pupils spend on Individual creative jobs. They print all the school literature, weld iren gates for the school garden und shape beautiful tiles and. take home.
Germany Looks Back On
With Satisfaction
Vases to
1938
Strong Army To Be Stronger Still
Colonial Issue
Problem
Berlin.
of
Czecho-
stocktaking in
There has bech much satisfed
Germany from Herr Hitler himself to the press recently
commentators, upon the course events in the past year. Austria and the Sudeten territory of Slovakia have been gained by Ger- many, thanks to her strong Army, which is to be made stronger still in the year now opening. In a special ¦ mertage to the Army Herr Hitler
Thanks it for its
drelsive role
"
"Soothing & Time Melodi"
as an Old
Spinet
Ovals
PLAIN and
CORK TIPPED
Spinet
HE SUPER VIRGINIA CIGARETTE
The Apinet Honzé, Gzio 1775 Gse%
Spinet
The SUPER Cigarettes.
Obtainable at
C. INGENOHL'S CIGAR STORES
LA PERLA DEL ORIENTE”
and other tobacconists.
realising the dream of centuries"...... the Greater Germany.
Great emphasis is laid on the sue- cessful co-operation between Ger- many, Italy, and Jupan, German friendship for Italy is declared by Herr Her to be clear and unbreak able. At the BAMS ume German
writers do not fail to observe that terranean are made Italy's own aspirations in the Medi- dimeult now that
13
more
Central Eu curt obliwowd of her
France
is now in a stronger position to con- centrate on the defence of her colonial empire, while British rearmament strengthens not only Britain but France in the Mediterranean.
by
Great Britain makes the least satis in factory
chapter In the German re- view. It is claimed here that follow- ing Munich a policy of prestige and rentiation is
being pursued by British opinion opposed to Mr. Cham- berlain, while the Government itself Is Keeking to
to avoid a solution of the colonial issue by taking cover behind the resentment foll in Britain Germany's treatment of the Jews.
It is declared here that the colonial question could be settled amicably between Germany and
and Britain but for the Jewish. question. It added that the colonial question will be found regularly on the agenda in years to come, and perhaps in circumstances more unfavourable for Britain thun at prescrit.
that
Satisfaction is also expressed the bellet that Japan would exhaust herself in the war with China has in. not come true, and that Japan tends to close China to European influence, except for pickings foi Germany and Italy.
The forming of a group consisting of Britain, France, the United States,
and the Soviet Union is seen here as opposing Germany, Italy, and Japan. But it is pointed out that the suc- cesses have fallen so far to the Ger man group. To the more obvious in sueccsses is added the decline in
pure democratic Parliamentary
government in a large number of the States of Europe. Economically Germany professes herself very well satisfied with her own semi-autarchy and with that of her Italian and Japanese alles.
BLACK OUTLOOK FOR JEWS The year opening for the Jews here is the blockest known to them
Jew
eame. into
in modern times. The measures condemning Jewry to economie oblivion passed after the shooting of Herr von Rath by the young Polish
foren. They
Includ
the prohibition against conducting almost any kind of trade, the closing of two-thirds or more of former Jewish shops, the re- moval of Jews from executive post- Lions in industrial or commercial concerns, Д regulation compelling Jewish communities to support the entire burden of their indigent core- ligonists, at least until their already badly depleted funds are exhausted. the obligation to carry
a police Identity card with photograph_and fingerprint, and the compulsory adoption of unmistakably Jewish
nuines.
Business Bad, Bandit Leaves
Arlington, Mass. William Brackett, Jr., 28, gasoline station attendant, knows how to handle holdup men. When a ban- dil demanded money at gunpoint, Brackett calmly replied: "Business Is terrible. I haven't got a cent."?
The gunman fled, leaving Brackett In possession of $9 In his pockets and $20 in the cash register.
Girl Of 3 Will Carry Scar For 18 Years
CLAIMING damages at Bour County Court recently for a scar caused when she tripped over a drain cover outside the local post office, three-year-old Sheila Violet Vallancrded £23. tonstone, E., was awarded
When Judge Owen Thompson told that Shella's scar would not disappear until ake was 21, he closely cramined her, commented: The scar does not even" spoli "her good looks now."
Wa
During the proceedings Shella was lifted up to speak to the judge.
If
I had done
as I was told—
3
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BARBARA GILMAR
English Songs Arrogant Popples (Gibbs). Autumn Even- ing (Quilter) Love went A-riding (Bridge) When shall marry me (Reynolds), From Opera Mefistofele (Boito) Marriage of Figaro
(Mozart), La Boheme (Puccini),
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this nasty cold!
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— and ARTHUR LAY (piano)
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