Monday, Nov. 25, 1940

Expatriates Walloped

Scion of a long line of German-American brewmasters and brewery tycoons, young George Ehret has been studying singing in Florence for the past two years. Last week Italian police had him up in court along with Miss Grace Gunther, also a U. S. citizen, expatriated for 30 years in Florence. They were each accused of doing in a big way what most foreigners in Italy do in a small way: buying lire at cut rates from illegal black-bourse traders.

The indictment charged that Mr. Ehret and Miss Gunther, working independently, went further, acted as commission men for numerous friends in the U. S. colony who wanted to trade dollars for lire below the State-established par.

As an example to other expatriates tempted to chisel with Italian exchange, the Fascist high court in Rome, from whose decision there is no appeal, walloped Mr. Ehret and Miss Gunther with terrific penalties. She got six years in jail and a fine of half a million lire ($25,000 at the official, not the black-bourse, rate of exchange), he seven years and a fine of $15,000. The U. S. Embassy was represented at the trial by Third Secretary Walter C. Bowling and through him Miss Gunther and Mr. Ehret begged the U. S. State Department to intervene.

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