STOWAWAYS' TRIALS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 93, 22 April 1925, Page 9

STOWAWAYS' TRIALS

Extreme privations lasting nearly a month wore suffered by two Germans who stowed away on the steamer Hamburg at Durban (South Africa) with the sole desire of reaching Australia and living there. They certainly attained the first part of their objective" but their stay in this country will be only temporary. Apprehended some weeks after escaping from the steamer, and charged with being prohibited immigrants, they weri

sentenced by an unsympathetic South Australian Magistrate to six months' imprisonment pending deportation. At Durban the Germans secreted themselves in the. coal bunkers of the Hamburg, and securing a few pieces of timber, they improvised a hut about fourfeet square to keep them free from dust and to prevent the weight of coal bearing down on them. This was their home for 23 days. It was close to the ship's boilers, and they suffered greatly from heat. At night, probably with the connivance of the crew, one of the stowaways emerged from hiding, and stealing to the galley, purloined food left over from the previous meal. Mostly their fare consisted of bread and water, for when they left the steamer at Port Adelaide they were on the verge of starvation. But thoir worst torture was provided by the limited space of their hiding place. In it they were nnable to stretch their limbs, and their only relief from this intolerable confinement Vas to leave the enclosure and lie at full length on the coal. At Port Adelaide the men eluded the ■authorities, and escaped from the ship. Although handicapped by inability to speak English, they managed to travel some distance northward by train. With resources exhausted, they found employment on a farm for some weeks before they were arrested as prohibited immigrants, and earned the praise of their employer as industrious fellows. Before the Port Pirie Court, an interpreter unfolded the Germans' story. He said that the men expressed a wish to remain in Australia at the expiration of their sentence, as they did not" want to face the unemployment which existed in Germany. But the Australian law in regard to _ admission of ex-enemy aliens is still being rigorously enforced, and their entreaty failed to move the Federal officials in their determination that the men must return to their native Bavaria.