REMARKABLE BIGAMY STORY.

FOREIGN GIRLS’ MARRIAGES,

The extraordinary case in which a married man confessed to going through the marriage ceremony with a number of foreign women with the suggested object of enabling them to acquire British nationality, again came before Mr. Chester Jones at Bow-street Police-court yesterday. The prisoner, Arthur Lazarus, aged 31, described as a kitchen porter, was originally arrested on a charge of failing to report to the police in accordance with the requirements of the Aliens Act, and he was subsequently accused of bigamously marrying a French girl, named Marguerite Marie Passe, at the Lambeth Registry Office in January, 1921, his wife, Alice Lazarus, whom he married in 1916, being then and now alive. Detective-inspector Eveleigh deposed that when the prisoner was told he would be charged with bigamy he made a voluntary statement, in which he said that he was out of work, but had been employed at various hotels in the West-end. He continued: A few weeks before Christmas, 1921, I was in a public-house in the West-end. I got into conversation with a man there. He said to me, “Can you find an Englishman to marry a foreign girl?” He did not say for what purpose, but I had my own opinion. He said, “If you can find an Englishman to do it he will receive £20 for it.” He asked me if I was an Englishman, and I said “Yes.” As a matter of fact I was born in Russia, of Russian parents, and was brought to this country when I was four months old. I have lived here ever since. As I saw there was money in it, I said I would do it. The man accepted my offer, and handed me some papers, among which was an identity book, I believe in the name of a foreign girl. I cannot remember her name. I took these papers to a registrar’s office and arranged for the marriage to take place in three days. I think the registrar’s office was in Marylebone. I cannot remember the name I gave, but I remember saying my address was Union-street, Marylebone. I have never lived there. Immediately after the marriage ceremony was performed I left the girl, and never stayed with her. After the ceremony I was handed £20 by one of the witnesses to the marriage. I was not asked for a receipt, and did not give one. About a week after this I met the same man, and he asked me if I would marry another foreign girl, and offered me £12 if I would do so. I first objected to the amount, but he pleaded that he was hard up, and I agreed to do it for that amount. He handed me some papers in the name of a foreign girl, together with £3, of which £2 14s 6d was for the licence and the balance for expenses. I should add that I received £3 in connection with the first marriage, in addition to the £20. I cannot remember which registrar’s office I went to on the second occasion, nor can I remember the girl’s name, nor the name I gave. After the marriage, the same person handed me £12. I left the girl outside the registrar’s office, and she went off with the man who paid me the £12.