GERMAN ADVENTURER

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 141, 17 June 1922, Page 10

GERMAN ADVENTURER

A KBMABKABLE STOKY.

The Belgian newspapers have been giring details of the alleged doings of an exGerman soldier, who has Been posing sometimes as a British ami sometimes as a Belgian military officer, with an audacity comparable to that of the notorious cobbler-captain of Koepemck. He is an elegant young man, who speaks Eng\ish and French fluently. During tho <var he was captured and taken to a prisoners' camp, but succeeded in convincing the Belgian authorities that he ■was a native of Malmody, and was released at tho Armistice.

One day, posing as the Grand Marshal .of the Belgian Court, ho rang up the Army Photographic Service, and ordered 250 portraits of King Albert, which were ■duly delivered to him, and which he disposed of at the current price for such reproductions. A little later he is dejpicted as having been the leading figure in a public military ceremony at Coblenz, •where, anned1 with, forged papers describing him as Major de Beney, of the Belgian Army, lie actually conferred the Belgian Military Medal on General Allen in the presence of a large 'on.ly of American troo-ps. After the ceremony, on one (pretest or another, he borro'.vod considerable sums from various Auiwican pincers and then disappeared. He is next heard of at Constantinople, ■where, still peeing as Major <".e Beney, "on a special mission," he was received with great ceremony, by tho Kuitfin, the ■Gland Vizier, and other Court 3igjiit^ries, and received a number of valuable presents. Here, one day, he was arrested by the British—the reason is not stated—and sent to C/he oSicsr in <:harga of the, British headquarters. F!"i;, however, is said to have addressed the British officer with such audacity, and to have complained of his treatment with such warmth; tha-t the officer expressed his regrets and ordered his immediate -please.