1934-03-24 — Page 9

PAGE THREE

SATURDAY MARCH THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH.

1934

THE AMAZING STORY OF STAVI SKY, THE BOND FRAUD ARTIST

AUSTRIA ON THE INSIDE

卍

GERMANY

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

AUSTRIA, WITH FOUR

THE AGEA OF DUIO

HAS A POPULATION ON

· BUBON, DOO

"JEKYLL AND HYDE" PAWNSHOP SWINDLE THAT BROUGHT FRENCH CABINETS TUMBLING

PEEP INTO THE HISTORY OF

GIGANTIC FINANCIAL BUBBLE BURST

"

BUCHS

SWITZERLAND

INNSBRUCH

LINX

BALIBURO

GMUNDEN

USTRIA

FLORIDSDOAK

BHOJNÝWY 18THA

BRUCK MAINE PUNC

LIVELIHOOD

ORATE O.

A 10 FOURRUT SCENERY

JUGO-

SLAVIA

HUNGARY

This map graphically shows how pressure from all sides has been exerted on little Austria, literally luft

"In the middle" by the post-war treaties.

By MARCEL WALLENSTEIN.

Vionna, Feb. 26.-As I survey the pitiful wreckage of the fra- ternal battlefields of this stricken city, the picture comes vividly to. my eye of the conditions that made all this inevitable.

Bec

cross08 on barns, shieds, fence- posts: Some show efforts to paint them out.. At Kitzbuhi, you two peasants at work on a wall with paint brushes. It had said "Holl Hitler!" They're painting out Hitler, substituting Dollfuss. Not a night passes in the Salzburg district without some such incl- A few weeks before this tempest dents, One night prowling Nazis caught a white cow and painted broke, I was entering Austria from great black swastikas on her. Po- the Swiss frontier. Let me pic-lice visited the owner the next day, ture this foreshadowing of future and he narrowly escaped prison. conflict:

JUSPICION,

.

The Arlberg-Orient express halts, panting, at Buchs, tiny Swiss-Austrian border town. Cus- toms officials search the train with seriousfaced thoroughness, sear ching not so much for contraband as for bombs. Sharp-ayed mon whose clothes shout "detective" go through the train from end to, end. Criminal police, heavily armed, pace the platform, two by two.

At last the express gets. under way, and a motley complement of passengers, feeling an air of ten sion and suspense, gathers in the corridor to gaze out on the sore spot of Europe.

ON GUARD.

A few miles across the moun- Germany, tainous country les The trails bristle with armed men of the Heimwehr, Dollfuss, Fasciat guard. Here and there you see "4 mountain gun packed laboriously to the peaks on mule-back,

Every bridge is guarded by two or more Heimwehr. For thla Is the borderland late which Ger man Naz! influence seepe strongly.

NAZI INFLUENCE,

The valleys are Nazi to the last peasant. They have pronted in the paat from tourist trame from Germany. But Germany has taxed such tourists entering Aue- tria, and killed the traffic and the pennants' prosperity, Hitler agents tell these people that they have unly to make Austria Nazist to re- store this lost prosperity. High- or up, the more expensive resorts

with British, French" are filled and Italians. People there are anti-Nazi as a result. Here, Ra follows everywhere, patriotism prosperity.

The express thunders into the west station, Vienna. The porters reap a rich harvest of tips from this Swiss train. A few hours earlier, when the German section of the train arrived, there were four passengers.

SPIES.

RUSSIAN SUPER-CROOK

By MORRIS GILBERT.

Now that the protective veil of secrecy that had hidden Serge Alexandro Stavisky's amaging operations and kept "pure" tho names of Frenchmen of high of- ficial, business and social rank in- volved in these operationa-can be ripped away, all the world can look-and gsep.

Stavisky perhaps was the gaud- lest of all the gaudy crooks. This may have been because his tecli- nique was so gorgeously simple. While his affairs were on the sur- face extremely complex, they were Dollfuss has perhaps 35 per based on the elementary business of taking little pieces of paper, cent of the people behind him in his Fasciat regime, openly sup writing big amounts on them, and ported by Mussolini, who shipped carloads of arms and ammuni- giving them away to people in ex-

as change for real money. tion into Austria as soon Nazlam raised its head. Dollfurs" Heimwehr is financed by business and royalist interests, which fear Nazi control. You hear that some of these anns are old Austrian rifles captured during the World War.

Another 36 per cent of the coun- Socialist, centring in try is

Vienna,

The Socialists, too, are well- armed with new rifles and machine guns from Czechoslovakia, and people tell you quite calmly that these are supplied by interests there that want to prevent a mon- archy being restored in Austria.

Perhaps 30 per cent of the of not so well armed, because country is Nazi. This section is Dollfuss' prompt action in closing: Probably the German border. not more than five per cent of the people are Communists.

申

CONFLICT INEVITABLE.

The Nazis have largely confined themselves to sporadic acts of vi- olence by night, and to quiet pro- paganda,

But the Socialists and Nazis are potential alles against the Doll- fuss Fascists and the royalists, who are more openly plotting the coronation of Frince Otto, Haps- burg heir, Dollfuss is openly sympathetic to Otto's cause, and It is not at all impossible that ho might play this trump card if he found his own dictatorship tot- iering. Major Fey and Prince Starhemberg put continual pres- sure on Dollfuss to adopt more against both Nazi and Socialist elements.

Voenna is calm, on the surface, Dollfuss has sent word to cloan the frontier, hold the mountain But police are everywhere. Regu-

It is no of n radio broad-severe passes against any invasion or im-lations are intense.

fence to listen to port of arms from Germany.

cast from Germany. Servants in any house may turn out to be po brother in the heat of political lice agents. Brother turns against alignments..

Just before Innsbruck, you see the side of a tiny chalet. Farther grent black swastika painted on on, a whole swarm of these black

IF YOU MUST

messures

Between such conflicting cle- ments there must inevitably have

been conflict..

BE "SUCH A

CAUTION" AT PARTIES

SOME SIMPLE RULES THAT SHOULD MAKE YOU HATED BY ALMOST EVERYBODY

By ARTHUR GROOM

himself over the mantelpiece or has great fun with a small stool. Fat cautions can earn more ap tempting to sit on a child's chair plause in a drawing-room by at- (and/or ride little Willie's toy horso) than falle to the lot of such amateur cautions na Charlie Chaplin or Groucho Marks.

"You will like Mr. Peckore-jold enough to possess the strength should endeavour to bring a very nough," said my Aunt Isobel, "heto raise my spirits. is such a caution."

No,

I shuddered Inwardly, and said I was sure I would, but I knew I wouldn't and I lidn't. think I disliked Mr. Peckersnough more than anyone else I've over met.

2

1

Mr. Peckeranough thrived on it, however, and went on being a cau- He did tion the whole evening. the job so thoroughly, in fact, that I took careful note of how he did it. Yes, and the peculiar part about It is that it's terribly simple to be a caution, even auch n cau- tion,

You've got to have a loud laugh,

*

METHOD HIGHLY SIMPLE, By this almost childish method of getting rich, Stavleky was able to ride high, wide and handsome wae tho through Europe. He host of cabinet ministers, sonen- tors and deputies, bankers, society folk and dazzled cuties,

He set the cutles up in theatres of their own, and sprinkled Paris bars and cabarets with jowels for his girl friends and his friends' girl friends.

mon

He accomplished this happy and generous task by the simple meth- ed of owning a pawnshop.

Pawnbroking in France le an honourable and philanthropic in- stitution. No credit municipal" can be founded without assent of the president of Franch. Most of them are endowed so heavily that they charge virtually no interest to needy borrowers.

"

PROFITS TO CHARITY,

Most of their profits go to char- ity: Thrifty Parisians pawn their cara in the winter, to save storage charges, as 200 motor vehicles can be stored in the eighteenth cen- tury palace which is the Parls credit municipal headquarters.

The original Paris credit murii- cipal was founded by King Louis XVI in the eighteenth century, to curb rapacity of private lenders. And it did.

Revelation of the gigantle pawn-- shop swindle of Serge Alexan dra Staylaky, shown in sketchi brought rioting in French cities and necessitated a strong guard nt the chamber of deputies In Paris, to quell angry crowds, nu shown in top photo. At left are Stavlky's wife and clildren. Ingot is Albert, Dalinsler, ve aigned colonial minister, né. ensed of boosting" Stavisky.

worthless stuff.

Stavisky's public appearances, porary disaster, in the form of a companies were salted with this were imperial. He always was ac- "washed" check. With Serge in comparted by some extra-hand- the hoosegow, his honest father, a cream-coloured uniform followed dentist in Paris, paid his debts

and committed suicide. some girlie. A chauffeur in him, toting a special deck-chair for "his"master's" case:-----

WORKED IN HIGH PLACES. The crowd that trailed him was not confined to mere pleasure acekera or noctambules. Stavisky, It is charged seriously, piped the So the rage of the citizens of tune for national governments, Bayonne easily can be understood certainly for more than one indi- when they found that their trust-vidual high in public life and of- ed pawnshop was only a swindler's fice... lair and rioted, clamouring for a lynching of the manager, who hap- pened to be guiltless, the real cul- prit being the elusive Serge Alex- andro Stavisky.

For the seven or eight years of his Bayonne operations, "le bel Alexandro" (which is what the French press unanimously calls him and which loosely "Dandy Alexandre") netually was "wanted", by the police,

means

It oven is anid that on the Satur- day afternoon before Stavleky's death, an eminent French lawyer called on Premier Chautemps to bargain for his client's surrender or escapo,

"Give him a break," the French lawyer is said to have argued, "or a liet of 180 names will be dragged down with him."

The Hat, it was asserted, was stupendous

Thus Stavisky began drawing his wealth from the famous knit- ted stocking of French savings, in frauds calculated at 650,000,000 franca.

ENTERS PAWN BUSINESS,

WHO CAN ANSWER? Followed an even more expan- Serge sive perfod, in which

Turbulent Franco is demanding mingled commercial dealings with dealings in Jewellery, He steered an answer to many questions.

Here is a list of them Issued by his course toward Orleans, where his initial plunge into

organ of former pawn- | Liborte, ̄_the broking took place.

Premier Tardieu who has missed Moving to Bayonne, Stavisky's no chances to knock over the Rad- activities went still bigger. "Muni-ical-Socialist regime on account of elpal credit" houses in France is le bol Alexandre": sued bonds to investors, backed by 1. What political figure fixed it articles in pawn. Satvisky's only so that since 1926 the crook Sta- Innovation was to lasue more than visky nover should come to trist? twice as many bonds as ha had backing for.

great

With this wealth he is supposed to have dealt heavily in Hungarian agrarian bonds, which many holders preferred to sell at n heavy discount rather than wait for maturity.

MAKES HUGE INVESTMENT.

2. What offcial furnished Sta- visky with identity papers? (It is fact that Stavisky hold papers without a blemish).

3. Who at the Ministry of Finances recommanded the pur chase of bonda of the "Municipal Credit to France's great banks?

4. Who stifled the Pachot re- ports? (Pachot, a high police off- Stavisky sonk quantities of the clal, made eloven reports on Sta- receipts of his. forged Bayonne viaky, charging him with frand), bonds, it is alleged, in these pur-

5. Who gave Staviaky adequate. chases, standing to make a stupen-raferences to permit him to obtain dous proft in a few years' time..

an option on the Hungarian bonds? 6. What politicians intrigued to get from Dalimler the famous lot

To be a successful caution one that tall friend with one, Bo laughs can be raised again and again by climbing on a chair to offer him a drink, or asking him

it is very cold up there. Children are also assets to the would-be cautions, because it gives them an excuse to go out into the hall and put other people's hats on. There happened to be a child at Aunt Isobel's little-or-party, and you can be sure that of Pecker- When the sandwiches are being handed round the caution always geta more than his share. He about feeding the lions and grabs merely pulls a face, says something ten sandwiches at once. Deary, deary me, that dons raise a laugh! Scotch, and a Lancashire joke in With regard to the actual jokes the dialect of an inhabitant of dealing with (p) mothers-in-law, Jews, the caution must ram some employed, they can include those Devonshire. As for Jokes about (b) income-tax officials. (c) the one's bowler hat over his our umbrella of kissing the hostess's

carpet. weather, (d) wives-one's own or

NATURALIZED IN FRANCE. "ALEXANDRE GOES CLEAN,

Serge Alexandre Staviaky, Rus- Everybody in Paris know that sian-born, axpired as a youth to be

was an actor,

Naturalized French "Mr. Alexandre" actually.

To keep his way smooth and to "Mr. Stavisky", Judges should during the war, he already pos have known it, because one pains-sessed such influence, apparently. taking police inspector wrote at that he never was called upon guarantee continuing receipts, ho least 11 different reports explain to fight for his chosen country.needed an outlet for his pawnshop tera recommending the Bayonne "abuse of confidence"-16 days in Albert Dalimler, former minister Ing this and demanding why "Mr. He already had taken the rap for bonds. Here is where the ill-fated bands to insurance companies? Alexandre" was at liberty.

jail and 26 francs Anc. In war in more than one French cabinet, what politics at luxurious time, his activities in connection with a banking house he exploited led to six months' imprisonment. to avoid Later he learned how these disagreeable details..

But the consummate effrontery of "le hel Alexandre" even pushed him so far that he was able to obtain not only a clean police rec. ord in the name of Alexandre-but was given a police card which ranked him as an official on the force.

met his Waterloo.

Dalimler was prevailed upon to Indorse and urge upon insurance companies in France, the purchase of this type of commodity.

This accurred while Dalimler A dozen years ago his affairs were prospering. Then came tom-held a cabinet post. Insurance

.

An objectionable fellow in atiff collar and boots, he was such a caution that, when anyone else of course, because all the Mr.nough took advantage of the fact. wanted to be just mildly humor-Peckersnoughs laugh at their own jokes; they net as their own ous, he took it as personal cheer-londors, as it were. Then affront. My first joke won great one must have a fund of stale ed with a ghost of a smile and a jokes rondy to dish out at a mo- murmured: "Very funny, but you ment's notice. There's no need to missed the whole point, if you worry about them being very atale; the stator the better. Mr. don't mind me saying so. The Packersnough even went so far as man got into a first-class compart-

to (you really must excuse me, but It is all for your own good if you ment. That is the joke."'

want to be auch-a-caution) bring I did mind him saying 50, but | out the one about the chicken those belonging to other people,nough's visit becauso I know that hand the while one trips over the

side of the road.

it was too late, and Aunt Isobel and-and the (forgive me!) other sent me off to ask one of her domestics to bring in some elder- berry wine that proved to be not

and (e) foreigners.

Oh dear me, not If he did he would miss his audience for his

a third's of taking one person's hat an Mother's loves and

"Cartainbow" act. This constats

I didn't last out Mr. Peckers- would only, end by dotting him one

With regard to the latter type of If I stayed much longer, but I hap-In conclusion, might I give a few jokes, the successful caution should pan to know, from past experience, very brief rules that must be A. caution

on nover sits still in invariably tell a Germanish joke in that the really successful caution obeyed if one is to shine as a cau- mixtura of Lancashire and never stays to the very bitter end. tion: an armchair, he generally drops' a

1 Pretend you have come to the 2 Nover be serious for one mo- wrong house upon arrival.

funny, then be as serious as you ment unless other people are being know how. It is so funny!

8 Say, "Ha! Ha! I can't tell you that ona!" And wag one's finger in the direction of the oldest person In the room and add, "Not before the child!" When one forgets the. end of a joke,

7: Who wore Btavisky's guests dinners and

naked

But the question being among middle-class French is how could any crook of Stavisky's known calibre ever have swung auch a club as he did throughout France during his pyrotechnic and fabulous career?

4. Never take a drink without choking over it and being patted on the back. That's, good for a long laugh.

b-If ono has relations in the room whom one is in the habit of kissing, kiss them very fondly upon leaving and then, so torribly and dramatically innocently, attempt to kiss total strangars,

Now go to it and be such a cau tion