GERMAN JOURNALIST

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 53, 31 August 1939, Page 5

GERMAN JOURNALIST

BARON OF OLD FAMILY

STRONG TIES WITH BRITAIN

(From "The Post's" Representative.).

SYDNEY, August 24.

Baron Kurt yon Stutterheim, foreign correspondent of the Berlin newspaper "Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung," the author of a well-known book on England, "Those English," .and now collecting material for a book on the British Empire, arrived in Sydney this week from New York. He intends to spend three months in Australia and New Zealand. Mr. Anthony Eden and Baron yon Stutterheim are connected by marriage. Both married daughters of Sir Gervase Beckett.

"In addition to writing articles for my paper about the Dominions, I will write a book about the British Empire," he said. "My articles are being posted back, by air mail. Before I left England, I visited the Foreign Office, explained what I intended to do, and was assured that no obstacles would be put in my path. I am touring the Empire simply as a journalist, a man interested in social, economic, and industrial problems. I have nothing to do with German propaganda. The colonies question is a political one and I have no interest in politics."

Baron yon Stutterheim said he had many links with England. His family was about twelve centuries old, with headquarters in Saxe-Coburg. "You may be surprised to know that my great uncle, or my grandfather's brother, became a general in the British Army," he said. "He commanded the foreign legion raised in England at the time of the Crimean War and fought in that campaign. When that war was over, the foreign legion was sent to South Africa to quell riots by Kaffirs and to found a new settlement. Those men founded the settlement with one hand on the plough and the other on a rifle. When I was in South Africa recently, 1 visited the town of Stutterheim, Cape of Good Hope, named after my great uncle, and was given a dinner by the civic authorities. It was a great day for me."

Concerning Mr. Anthony Eden, Baron yon Stutterheim said: 'We meet at family gatherings, but we never talk politics. If Mr. Eden is at a country house he is there to relax."

Some people, the Baron said, had the foolish idea that Mr. Eden was a dandy, a sort of Beau Brummell. "How silly," he laughed. "He is too busy a man to be spending his time preening himself in front of mirrors. As a matter of fact his wife chooses most of his clothes."