Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Saturday 27 July 1940, page 2


FATHER DIVINE

SALUTATION

Follower's Will j

_ i

i So* will I j ou to be as this,

leaves Me well, healthy joyful |

peaceful lively, loving, successful

I prosperous and haopy in spiiit | body and mind, and In every 01 gan muscle sinew, joint limb frame and bone and even in even atom fibre and cell of My bodily form

I This salutation it was said in the Practice Court jesterdaj was written bj Father Divine head of the American le lligious cult b»arlng his name to the

solicitors of the estate of a white follower in Melbourne '

Man j Melbourne people were Father Divine adherents Mr Justice Lowe was told and Mrs Catherine McElroj late of Napier --t Fitzroj cut her husband and

two of her children out of her will after I she became a follower

Her husband a complete war imalid attained the rank of captain in the last war won the Militan Medal and Militan Cross and was mentioned in despatches by Sir Ian Hamilton at Oalllpoll

John Henry McElroj CO the widower

Kathleen McElroj 28 a daughter and Spruhan Rogers Paul McElroy 26 a son were appljlng for maintenance from Mrs McElroy s estate Fite davs before hei death on February J 8 Mrs McElroj made a will bequeathing £250 to an illegiti-mate son and directing the use of the residue to start a childrens home to be controlled by an American appointed bj Father Divine The amount available for the purpose would be £1 500

In an affidavit the widower said that Mis McElroy developed a fen our for re liglon and spiritualism and one night when the light shone into the bedroom through a hole in the blind cried There it is The message has come It must be mj guide in India She flew into a! violent läge when he told her it was the street light'

Kathleen McElroy of High st Anna dale said in an affidavit that she v\as looking after her invalid father Her mother had a violent temper and used to beat her and her brother unneces sarily with anything at hand

Her mother was always at her to be-come a follower of Father Divine move-ment and she flew into a violet temper and cursed her when witness said she would remain faithful to her present re-ligion

Mi Justice Lowe directed that £500 be set aside out of the estate that the widower be paid the interest for life and that the daughter receive the £500 on his death He ordered that the daughter re-ceive £100 forthwith

Mr D M Campbell (in-tructed b> Mcsrrs Pa\ej V lito i and Cohen t appeared tor ti o applicants nnd Mr N Burbank (by Messrs nullen tit d Burt

lor the executors

WAR HELPS TO BREAK UP

DRUG TRAFFIC

With blockade and contraband control the war has probably done more in a few months to curtail the illicit drug traffic in Em ope than the League of Nations was ever able to achieve

A smuggling ring which was dumping 6 000 000 dollars worth of drugs into the United States every year is the latest gang to be broken up

The League of Nations for 20 years has been endeavouring to get its members and other countries which are not members to take effective steps for the control of the traffic International co-operation in stamping out the evil has been the result and many huge drug rings have

been smashed

In 1932 the largest organisation for illicit traffic in white drugs that the world has seen was exposed and dispersed With Paris as headquarters and branches in Hamburg New York Constantinople and China the Ellopoulos gang controlled the contraband morphine and heroin trade of the world Its two largest markets were the United States and China

A major scandal involving high political figures in France followed the arrest in Paris in 1938 of Louis Lyon multi-mil-lionaire restaurant owner and leader of a huge international drug ring In the same year all America was shocked at the disclosures which followed the suicide of Donald Coster alias Philip Música ex-convict. He was president of the McKesson and Robins Drug Corporation from which £4 500 000 of assets mysteriously disappeared. Investigations showed that the firm made enormous profits in smug-gling arms and narcotics to Europe and South America.