ALLEGED AID TO ENEMY

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 58, 6 September 1945, Page 7

ALLEGED AID TO ENEMY

ENGLISHMAN WITH N.Z.E.F.

! (Special P.A. Correspondent.) LONDON, September 4. An Englishman who lived for two years in Auckland before joining the N.Z.E.F. is mentioned among 40 Allied prisoners of war concerned in the "British Free Corps." The list was compiled by a Canadian soldier who was, accused at a court-martial of aiding the enemy. The man is LanceCorporal R. N. Courlander. In a statement said to have been made by the Canadian, Private E. B. Martin, he commented on Courlander: "He was a racketeer. He tried to make a success of the British Free Corps for his own personal benefit. He openly stated that he expected a commission from the Germans." Private L. T. Freeman, of Birmingham, said in evidence that he, Martin, Courlander, and three others went to the SS propaganda school at Hildensheim, where they. were issued with SS uniforms, a cap bearing the death's head symbol, a Union Jack round the right arm, and a B.F.C. flash for the left arm. They were also issued with police pistols. Captain Roepke, who was the German in command of the British Free Corps, told them that the B.F.C. would grow into a big organisation to fight Bolshevsim and bring Germany and Britain together. Freeman said that the day would begin with an 8 o'clock parade, which Martin took and dismissed with a "Heil Hitler." There was some objection to the "Heil Hitler" saluting, and at a conference they had Courlander said, "Well, we have to raise our right arm, but what we say under our breath is nobody's business." Martin, in a statement, said he realised that he might be put up on a charge of treason. "The reason I did what I have done was to gain the confidence of the Germans so that I could obtain information which might later be of use to the British authorities," he said. He pleaded not guilty to a charge of acting as informer to the enemy and voluntarily acting as a member of the B.F.C. Courlander is detained at an N.Z.E.F repatriation centre in Kent, where he is awaiting court-marial on September 18.