MYSTERY PACKAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 92, 19 April 1941, Page 15

MYSTERY PACKAGE.

SCARE FOR CONSUL.

POLICE RUSH TO SCENE.

(By Air.) SAX FEAXCISCO, April 11. Sir Godfrey Haggard, British ConsulGcneral in Xew York, could hardly be blamed for having looked askance at a mysterious olive drab package that arrived by parcel poet shortly before 11 a.m. one morning. It wae more than a foot long, a foot deep and nearly a foot across; and Sir Godfrey expected no gift of such dimensions. When the maid showed it to him in his apartment at 1, Sutton Place South, Now York, the Consul-General thought fleetingly of the fatal bombing at the British Pavilion at the Xew York World Fair last July 4.

He remembered, and obeyed, instructions to call the police at the first sign of a suspicious package. T<v.t instead of the single patrolman he thought he was summoning there arrived an emergency equad of ten men, a radio car and a miscellany of police and fire apparatus that rather overwhelmed him. The package in the meantime had been set gingerly outside the eighth floor fire exit, and lay there tieklessly but worrisome.

Radio Patrolman John J. Casey, who had every right to feel uneasy about his task, carried the package downstairs and across a iawn thai leads to the Kast Kiver overlook. The eight flights seemed very icng. At a point farthest from the building lh* package was immersed in oil. Soon members of the bomb squad were preparing to extricate and examine it.

But shortly after 11 a.m. on ordinary letter arrived from Bemus Point, Chautauqua County, near Jamestown, Xew York State. It was from Mrs. Bainbridge Colby, wife of the former Secretary of State, a friend of the Haggards. It explained that a package of eggs was being sent, fresh from the country, as it were, and asked the household to be on the lookout for it. In a twinkling the premises became devoid of policemen as the firemen's bench during the annual inter-departmental ball game.

At Bemus Point Mrs. Colby seemed a little chagrined at the unnecessary excitement. She said she did not have "any idea" as to exactly how many eggs were involved. Th'e best guess, from the eize of the box, was three or four dozen. More moot, anyway, was the effect of oil on eggs. Xo absolute authority could be reached, and Sir Godfrey was unavailable. But a member of his staff at the Consulate Kit no doubt of his chiefs daring. "I think the Consul-General is looking forward to tasting them," he said simply.