A bold "racket" in which official petrol of the Shanghai Municipal Council was being taken to the residence of Mr. Stirling Fessenden, the Secretary-General, and there fliered to remove its distinctive colouring and make it saleable outside, was disclosed last Wednesday when French fand Settlement Police went to. the esidenee and arrested two Council drivers and Mr, Fesvenden's private chauffeur.
'The arrests were made shortly after three o'clock, when. the Settlement Police, acting on a tip that some of the gullly chauffeurs' were at the house, obtained the ce-operation of the French Police and" went to the residence, 687 Rue Ratard, They surprised (we men in the garage in the very act of Altering the reddish Council petrol through charcoal, and seized a third man'In front of the house, at a P.W.D. car from which the petrol had been removed. The filtered product, it was found, was virtually colourless and hence could marketed as ordinary supplies.
Suspicion that a "racket" was being perpetrated was aroused when' Coun cil cars, particularly those belonging the P.W.D. frequently were seen parked about the residence in num: bers. The Mer used by the chautfours apparently was taken to the garage every time they made @ haul. It was a portable affair, and evidently it was not thought safe to leave it there indefinitely.
Mr. Fessenden said that night that he thought the "scheme had. been hatched prior to his return from Home leave in January. The ira intimation he received that his own chauffeur was implicated was when the man was arrested that day with the two Council drivers,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.