The Washington herald., 1920-12-26
USEU.ScONSUI's
NAME TO SECURE
FAKEPASSPORTS
Gang of Counterfeiters
Arrested in Berlin with
Forged Dies.
Special csbls Dispatch to
The washington Herald.

Tho We8hn8ton 6oheses
BERLIN, Dec. 25.-The arrest of q
big band of passport forgers and the
seizure of blank passport forms and
stamps for imposing American,
British, Belgian and other passport
vises for entrance into the coun-
tries concerned or transit through
them proves that the passport and
wise system is a less efficient safe
guard against the entry Of undesir-
ables than was generally assumed
The gang just captured. which op-
Grated from a house In Grenadier
street, Berlin-the stamping ground
for crooks, counterfeiters and illegal
tradesmenN of all sorts-is only one
Of several which have been attempt
ing to follow this short cut to
wealth, by providing Germans seek
ing to enter the United States with
the necessary entrance papers and
by giving Russians and others Gre
dentials on which they can reside in
Germany. Tha returns are attrac-
tive. the prices ranging from 5000
marks for a passport and wise to en-
ter the United States to a few hun
dred marks for a residential permit
emitting the holder to remain in Ger
many.
Polish Passports Popular.
Polish passports have been chosen
as the favorite medium for this form
of knavery because they are easily
forged and less liable to strict
survey at American ports of>sntry
owing to the great number Of Poles
going to the United States. Papers
seized at the Grenadier street head
quarters during the raid showed that
this office alone had had printed SOC
false passport forms, of which only
ten or twelve remained. the assump-
ton being that the rest already had
been placed in circulation.
The forgers, apparently dissatis-
fed with their facilities for forging
American vises, had placed an order
| with a firm of die and stamp manu-
facturers in the name of the Ameri-
can Consul at Warsaw for a copy
Of the wise rubber stamp OF the
Warsaw Consulate and Of the die
| for impressing the consular seal
with the eagle, and they also or
dered counterfeit American fee
stamps.
Police to Quiz Firm.
The police obtained the receipt
| for the advance payment and called
| for and secured the stamps, dies
etc, which were all ready for de-
| livery. The firm will probably be
called upon to explain why they SO
lightly accepted the order from a
foreign official in another country
The American passport official,
here express the opinion that none
| of the forged passports and vises
has as yet been used for entranct
into the United States and that the
| forgers have not yet succeeded ir
counterfeiting American passports
This confidence is not shared b,
competent German officials, who tolt
your correspondent today they knew
| positively that substitute creden'
tials had been put into service and
particularly that misuse Of Ameri'
can passports either by deliberate
forgery or sale to new holders wal
| by no means uncommon.
The police found in the Grenadiel
Street office a scratch pad on which
q German "Jim the Penman" had
been practicing the signatures Of
officials at the Belgian passport Of
fee to keep his hand in shape.
Copyright, 1890. Public Ledger Coz