Naturalised Briton Will Be Deported From N.Z.

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28450, 3 December 1957, Page 24

Naturalised Briton Will Be Deported From N.Z.

(New Zealand Press Association)

NAPIER, December 2. A man, who claimed he had been in the French Foreign Legion and later an American counter-intelligence agent in Germany, was convicted today on a charge of desertion and another of unlawfully entering New Zealand, and ordered to be deported from the Dominion. He appeared before Mr W. S. Spence, S.M., in the Napier Magistrate’s Court. He is Jaroslav Josef Prokop, aged 35, a naturalised British subject who was born in Czechoslavakia, and who was a cook aboard the Condesa. He was fined £lO on the charge of deserting the Condesa at Napier on November 27, and was ordered to pay £4 8s costs on the charge of unlawfully entering New Zealand. Senior-Sergeant C. Snow said that Prokop had been arrested at the Napier railway station last Wednesday morning. He was preparing to leave Napier. He was a British subject by naturalisation, and was not aboard the Condesa when the vessel left Napier for Balboa on November 27.

For the defendant, Mr A. K. Monagan said that Prokop was “somewhat bewildered’’ to find that as a naturalised British subject he could be charged with

unlawfully entering New Zealand. Prokop had led an amazing life, said Mr Monagan. He was born in Czechoslovakia and before World War II went to Germany as a student. He fled to France after Hitler’s regime took control in Germany and joined the French Foreign Legion. He deserted from the legion in Morocco, where he was acting as a guard over Arab prisoners, and boarded a British ship at Tangier. The ship was torpedoed on its way back to Britain, said Mr Monagan. Prokop finally reached Britain, however, and for the next three years served among the Czechoslovak volunteers with the Royal Air Force. He was given an honourable discharge in 1945 with the rank of flightsergeant, a veteran of 43 bombing missions over Germany. Prokop then returned home to Czechoslovakia and went into business, said Mr Monagan. He was warned of impending arrest by the Russians, however, and fled to Western Germany, where he was sent to a refugee camp. He later became the manager of an officers’ club for the United States occupation forces. He was by that time a confectioner of some ability, and became a confectioner at one of the large United

States bases in the United Kingdom. After this, Prokop did counter-intelligence work for the Americans in Germany. When his wife left him for a serviceman. Prokop thought of emigrating to Canada, but later discarded the plan and joined the Condesa to investigate the possibility of emigrating to New Zealand, said counsel. Prokop left the ship because he objected to the food. The Magistrate said he was “not left with much alternative’’ but to convict Prokop and order his deportation.