ECHO OF THE WAR

Evening Star, Issue 18852, 29 January 1925, Page 6

ECHO OF THE WAR

GERM TO BE TRIED FOR MURDER NEW ZEALAND SOLDIER THE VICTIM. TRAGIC HAPPENING IN 1919. Frees Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. BERLIN, January 28. (Received January 29, at 12.10 poa.) At Cologne, Franz Swaboda will appear before a British military court on January 30 on a charge of murdering a New Zealander, Private Cromar, in 1919. A band of German youths at the beginning of the Allied occupation swore to cut off the hair of gilds fraternising with the members of the Army of Occupation. Private Cromar on February 7, 1919, entered into conversation with a girl who was sitting on Ihe same seat in a public park. The self-constituted watch committee approached, and attempted to molest the girl, and Cromar, after explaining the bamdessness of the conversation, drew Ids bayonet to defend her, upon which one of tho band shot him dead. There were many arrests, but Swaboda, whom his accomplices denounced as having fired tho shot, fled to the unoccupied territory. Tho others wove severely punished for their complicity. On January 23 Swaboda visited his parents at Cologne, and was immediately arrested by tho British police, who are now seeking tho girl and other witnesses. —Reuter.