ROMANTIC INCIDENT

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 10, 12 July 1922, Page 9

ROMANTIC INCIDENT

A remarkable and romantic -incidenfi has just come under the' notice of the American Consul in Melbourne. Last week the Consul was somewhat' startled by the apparition which walke if into his office. A sturdily-built man, wearing in lieu of ordinary trousers si pair of American Army breeches and; putties, and with- his wrists adorned,by the bracelets of a broken pair of handcuffs, claimed protection as an American) citizen. It was he who, earlier in the day, broke his handcuffs and escaped! from the steamer West Islet, where ho had been secured by the steward, who thought he was mad. The man's story is a curiously interesting one. Of German, birth, he went up to the United States and took out naturalisation papers. When war broke. out in Europe lie enlisted in the American Army, and ultimately went across to France as an airman. He did good work as a pilot, but, li!;e many another good man;-. Had th« misfortune to be brought down by a shell behind the German lines, where he*was taken prisoner and pHced in an. internment camp. His - fellow-country-men subjected him to fiendish treatment,, on one occasion, in a fit of. "playfulness," running a .bayonet through' his body. However, he recovered, and succeeded in making friends with one of his guards. . Through this man ho was* abl* to obtain a German uniform and mada his escape , from the internment camp. The fact that he was a German native, and that he spoke the language fluently, enabled him to make his wav safely through the German lines, and he ati length rejoined the Americans in) France. His health was badly affected! by the cruelty to which he had been) subjected. His mental condition' is still! weak, owing to his treatment at tho hands of his German countrymen.' Subsequently the man was "discharged, upon the master of the vessel agreeing to take him back and look after him. '