FACT AND FANCY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 108, 10 May 1927, Page 5

FACT AND FANCY.

WAR STORY RETOLD. ft t c VON LirCKNER'S ESCAPE. c ' C AMUSING INACCURACIES. Most New Zealanders have read the exploits of Count Felix von Luckner, the German internee on Motuihi Island, Auckland, who escaped and was recaptured at sea. The war is long over, and other countries are being told the Count's story. He himself is now engaged in a lecture tour of the world, and it is reported that he intends to come to New Zealand. His exploits lend themselves to picturesque description, and in the case of a narrative based upon the Count's adventures which appeared in the "New York Magazine" in February, the author, who apparently had listened to a lecture by Von Luckner in. New York, describes the adventures in a light which will at least amuse New Zealanders who know the facts of the story. Whether the author writes upon the facts as given by Luckner, or whether he works upon his own imagination, is not clear. "When the eight Germans ended up j in the internment camp at Auckland," says the narrator, "their life was scarcely that of ordinary prisoners of war. Captain Mullen, the English officer in whose charge Luckner had placed his own captives when he sent them from the Atlantic into Rio de Janeiro had come all the way from Australia to make sure that the Count was treated as the Count had treated hinv' Then conies the first inaccuracy which will bring a smile to the face of the New Zealander. ''General Sir James Allen," the story proceds, "the commandant of the little island on which the Germans were interned, found the genial sea devil a delightful companion, and enjoyed his stories of the Sea Eagle's long raid. They all made friends. . . . General Sir James Allen had a private motor boat, and Luckner assigned one of his men, an expert mechanician, to run it. General Sir James Allen had been forced to send most of his orderlies to war, so Luckner gave him a German valet. It all seemed so perfect! Here were two military gentlemen stranded in an out-of-the-way place during a war. Did it matter that they were from opposing sides, in the struggle? The Englishman was -without an army and the Germans without a ship."' Escape From Motuihi. The article goes on to refer to the escape of the part of internees from Motuihi. "On one of General Sir James Allen's trips to Auckland his motor boat sprank a leak, and his solicitous German chauffeur, seeming terribly sorry, asked permission to beach it for repairs. Hitherto the launch had been tied up by the entrance bridge, directly beneath the eyes of one guard." One day, in the course of repairs to the bridge, which were being carried out by the Germans upon Luckner's offer of their assistance, one of the Germans tripped and fell into the water. Without a word, the English guard threw down his rifle and jumped after him "Ho," yelled the Count. "Now for it, men." And the entire party leapt into the sound and started swimming for that part of the beach where the General's motor boat lay. No one could see them; the one guard was with them in the water, and the watchtower overlooked every part of the island but the bridge. The guard found himself seized in the water by a big hand. "Now we are your guards.'" an excited Viking voice bellowed in his ear. "You shall come pirating with me and my boys! Won't that be fun?' And so the little party made fur the open sea. "The Count was as a new man," the article continues. "He was roaring praise and encouragement to the rest of them as he stood near the bow. changing his wet clothes for dry ones the valet-sailor was handing hini. Suddenly the little launch full of Germans broke into a roar laughter. The new clothes proved t«_ ae General Sir James Allen's best uniform. The Count smoothed out the broad pockets, strapped on the Sam Brown, and nodded. Then came the final surprise as the valet-sailor handed him the General's parade sword. The Count offered his hand in return. Enemy raider, escaped prisoner of war— he was having a triumph here in New Zealand. In the General's equipage he drove up the street toward his old island internment camp, with the crowd surging on every side, yelling their enthusiasm. "The English honoured him, the Native Maoris made him chief—an honour he shares with but one other white man, the King of England. He was taken exceptional care of, accepted in the military circles in Auckland, and made more a lion than a captive buccaneer. . . . When the war ended he was released immediately, and bidden God speed as he returned to Germany. In the ship which was to take him home, his cabin was full of flowers, and his valise was crammed with gifts from the very powers , against whom he had been supposed to be making war." Capture of Scow Moa. "Sword in hand, once again boisterous and gesturing, Count Luckner stood in the motor-boat and scanned the horizon. They didn't know where they were going, but they had a good idea. They were looking for a ship—any ship—to , take them to sea. And as they had . anticipated, it was not long before a t sailing vessel, the British ship Moa, appeared. Luckner, in the general's , uniform, saluted with the general's J sword, and announced to the captain I that the motor-boat was out of gas. The false general and his German crew were I promptly taken aboard. When they

had climbed the ladder to the deck of the Moa" (the Moa was a scow!) "the count called her captain to the rail and pointed down to something which had , gone hitherto unnoticed on the general's launch. At her small masthead fluttered a sheet, painted distinctly with the colours black, white, and red. " 'My God,' said the Moa's captain, quietly. 'You're the count.' The count , drew the genferal's revolver. He was at , home now, once more on a ship's deck, , and master of the situation. The crew came running to surrender. . . As Luckner lit his pipe the flare revealed his ' genial face almost looking sentimental. [ Then he grinned, his paw closing over ' the bowl: 'But there's the devil to pay in Auckland!' "The Australasian Fleet." "How the Moa, with her crew as captives or volunteers for the enemy, ran in under the nose of a British warship, and got supplies at the shipwreck station of Curtis Island, is still the talk 6f late evenings in New Zealand," the magazine writer records. "How, just too late, the authorities created a stir and sent out all the available fleet to recapture the sea devil, is well remembered. . . . For 1200 miles he let the fair breeze sweep him on, happy in the slap of the canvas and the swish of the "spray. . . . Then two cruisers came over the skyline at the same time. Behind them were eleven steamers and a strange fleet of motor launches, three dozen in all. This was the Australasian fleet. . . . " 'Count, you are a sport, , said the first English captain to board him. 'I'm sorry I have to take you back. . But this was only a small part of the British praise in store for the sea devil. "The radio of the cruiser Iris told Auckland that Count Luckner had been apprehended, and the newspapers soon had it in head lines: 'Sea Devil Caught. Returns To-day.' Slump of the Races. "There were the usual horse races scheduled for that time in New Zealand, a big event, but no one went near the track. Felix von Luckner, who twenty years before had visited these shores unheralded as a runaway urchin, stepped off an enemy ship to a many-voiced acclamation. General Sir James Allen came forward to shake his hand. He repeated the phrase of the cruiser's captain. 'Count, you are a sport. We bring you back, not in enmity, but because we like your company. And I do want to have my sword'! Surprised, pleased, and bewildered, the daring