CARELESS TALK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 166, 15 July 1943, Page 5

CARELESS TALK

Story Behind Trial Of German Internee In Australia WARNING TO THE PUBLIC Rec. 1 p.m. CANBERRA, this day. A German who came to Australia in 1938 prepared to sketch maps of Australian defence installations while he was in an internment camp. This German, Karl Oswald Thierfelder, pleaded guilty in Adelaide Criminal Court to two charges of having obtained and recorded information in a manner likely to prejudice the defence of the Commonwealth. Thierfelder has been remanded for sentence. News of the trial has been released by the Australian Director-General of Security, Brigadier Simpson. Before the war Thierfelder worked as a mechanic for a German motor organisation, said Brigadier Simpson. He acquired a great deal of information about Australia's defence positions and installations, and about some measures of a secret nature. After the outbreak of war Thierfelder was interned, but the knowledge he possessed was gained in such a thorough manner that he was able to prepare carefully annotated sketch maps showing many of these installations. . "While much of Thierfelder's information could have been gained from observation, some vital facts in his possession were obtained by listening to idle chatter," declare I Brigadier Simpson. "There is still far too much loose talk. Peone must develop a security sense." Brigadier Simpson announced that another internee from an overseas country had pleaded guilty to four counts of having in his possession documents containing information of military value which might be useful to the enemy. The case is being heard in camera.