MACKAY'S END

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 149, 28 June 1929, Page 3

MACKAY'S END

SHOT DOWN IN BERLIN

RISING JOURNALIST

DISREGARDED WARNING

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 18th May. Some details of Mr. Charles E. Maekay's death in Berlin have already been cabled to New Zealand, and doubtless the newspapers have recalled the tragedy and trial in which he figured in Wanganui some. years ago. It may here be stated that no mention of his past was made in London journals until the "Daily Mail" published a message from the Christchurch correspondent: This restraint was' not altogether 1 through ignorance, for several news agencies were well aware that Mr. Maekay had figured in one of the most sensational trials in New Zealand. It was simply not their business to dig up the past.

Two years lago Mr. Maekay came to London, evidently determined to make some success of a chequered career. On his visiting cards was the inscription: "Mr. C. E. Maekay, .Waitara Daily News, Waitara, New Zealand:" Ho started work as a free lance journalist. Ho displayed tremendous energy and enterprise, and he attended a" great many public functions, especially those where no invitation was needed. It is probable that he wrote for some New Zealand papers under ; a norn de. plume. It is known that he had impressed his individuality upon a number of acquaintances, among whom were some interesting people. From the fact that he was actually assisting the Berlin correspondent of the "Daily Express" it may be gathered that he was well on the way towards re-establishing himself in a new profession. The "Daily Express" correspondent thus begins a message to his paper: "Mr. Charles E. Mackay, one of my best friends and one of the most brilliant men I have ever met, was shot dead on Friday night ..." "The Times" correspondent mentions: "Mr. Maekay, who was a lawyer, only intended to spend about six months in Germany. He had recently been admitted a temporary member of the Foreign Press' Association, and was much liked by his colleagues. He was 46 years old." KILLED "BY ACCIDENT." The correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" gives this account of the shooting: 'Mr. Mackay, who was 46 years old, and was making a prolonged tour of Europe for his paper, had spent some months in Berlin, and was naturally curious to sec for himself what was going on in the- siege areas here. Although he knew very little German, he applied to the police for leave to cross the cordon. He was urgently warned not to do so—according to one version categorically forbidden—but replied that he had been through the whole war and was familiar with much graver risks. "Whether merely disregarding the warnings or actually defying the prohibition, he entered the siege area in Neukoelin, and was very soon shot dead. • "This happened on Friday night, and until the following evening there seems to have been no doubt whatever as to. the origin of the projectile which killed him. The majority of- last evening's Press reports, wbjch were obviously for the most part supplied by the police themselves, agreed that he must have failed to respond with sufficient alacrity to a police challenge, and was, of course; shot down. '/It.is excedirigly singular-that the police should have been in such'a hurry to assume the blame for Mr. Mackay 4 death, for, after the lapse of the greater part of a day, it became evident that their right to claim him as one ol their victims was not beyond challenge The evening papers contained a statement by Herr Zoergiebel the Police Prefect, that 'it has been impossible to establish from which side was fired the fatal bullet.' Incidentally the Prefect says the dead journalist crossed the cordon 'in spite of mv warnings and although the head of the local police station had urgently drawn his attention to the great danger of entering the disturbed area.' "To-night it is definitely admitted that he was killed ?by accident' by a policeman who shot him, thinking Mr Mackay was going to use a revolver. If Mr. Mackay had been better acquainted with the methods of the Berhn police—which, it appears, in this respect have deteriorated and not improved under the Republic— and particularly if he had known their attitude towards independent journalists, ;„ w;° uld, have realise<l that in entering the 'zone of operations' he was courting much greater risk than that of either of the combatants, namely tha o^ being tilled, wounded, beaten) or insulted by both of them."

TAXI-DRIVER'S STORY. i\Z hi n We" Am Afeend," j a camouflaged Communist paper, whik for its own particular purges hasfbe'en very 1 and stopped at the corner- of Jaeeer' eifS?a£s3w thaf tWenty ln,. illutes to twelve I saw gerstrasse staggered, turned and felt He lay there twenty minutes before the police troubled to see to him. Tfa man it *°ned my . Car to tak^W tnl man, who meanwhile had died. ' He was put into my car, but as an ambulance came up at the m6ment, he was transferred t. that. The poVice oflicials who were nearer to the spot than I naturally saw the man fall. Jiut they let more than twenty minutes go by before they troubled about him. Perhaps ho might have been saved, ironi photographs which were shown to me I recognised that it was the Australian (New Zealand) journalist, Mr. Mackay." ■.■'•> > LECTURER IN ENGLISH. The "Evening Standard" has the following:— "When Mr. Mackay was in London last summer he took a great interest in the Eussian Ballet, and this interest grew to such an extent that he wrote scenarios and submitted them to M. Diaghileff. A friend of his said to-day:— "I am not at all surprised that Mr. Mackay ventured alone into the danger area of Berlin so late last night. Beside the strong urge that he would have from duty, his adventurous spirit would also havd called him ttf risk Ms Kite

in order to see for himself what was occurring. "Mr. Mackay had been in Berlin only a few months. A* week or so ago he wrote to me and said he had obtained a post as lecturer in English at the University. Incidentally, ho" was not fully conversant with the German language, and this may have been a factor in the tragedy." The chief correspondent of the "Daily Express" and the "Sunday Express" sent a peculiar story to the "Sunday Express." No doubt it added sensation to the-account of the shooting. He said:— "His death is the tragic end to a tragic life. He was born at Nelson, New Zealand, forty-six years ago, as the son of the headmaster of Nelson College. -■.... "His grandfather, Colonel Mackay, was an officer in the Maori war whom tbe Maoris learned to respect and love so much that they made iim honorary chief of one of their tribes—a distinction which was to be handed down in the Mackay family from father to son. "My friend. was the last Mackay chief of the Maori tribe. He wore round his neck, hidden next to his chest, an amulet, a green jade token belonging to the Maori chief."