OFFICERS’ MESS ROBBED

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 December 1940, Page 8

OFFICERS’ MESS ROBBED

STEWARD SENT TO GAOL [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, December 5. The discovery that the officers’ mess at Papakura Military Camp had been broken into on the night of November 23 had a sequel in the Magistrate’s Court when Joseph Walter George Coleman, a soldier and steward, aged 38, was charged with stealing about £2B, the property of Thomas Patrick Laffey and others. Detective-Sergeant Walsh prosecuted, and Mr. Noble, who appeared for the accused, entered a plea of not guilty. George Allen, a steward at the officers’ mess, said x that on the Saturday night there was about £ 10 in tobacco money and £lB in liquor money in the bar at the mess. The door was locked when the bar closed at 9.15

p.m. Accused was dining room waiter at the mess, and his duties did not include the bar. | Other witnesses said that on the following morning it was found that the doors of the bar and of a locker containing the cash box had been forced open, and the money taken. A handkerchief was found on the floor bearing a number corresponding with that marked on another handkerchief, belonging to accused. The movements of the accused from the camp to Papakura, and then by taxi to Auckland were traced, and evidence was given that he booked in at a city hotel-' early on the Sunday morning. During the morning he gave the receptionist £.lO in notes and silver to look after for him. He also left £3 with the receptionist at another hotel. The results of an examination of the fingerprints on a glass dish from which the money had been stolen at the camp were detailed by Sergeant Ftancis, who said the prints of the accused’s fingers were the only clear 1 ones. In his opinion this indicated : that the accused had last handled the : dish. <

In a statement made to a detective accused denied theft from the camp, saying that he had obtained the £lO

from a girl on the Sunday morning to pay a debt. The detective added that the accused made no mention of the £3 which he had deposited at a different hotel.

. “Accused’s whole story is patently without the slightest foundation,” said Mr. J. Morling, S.M. “Before he received £3/10/- in wages on the Saturday the accused had no money. He takes a taxi to Auckland and pays for a room with small coins, such as would naturally come from a bar. Accused says later that he had obtained the money from a lady.” Accused was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, and an order was made that the recovered money should be returned to the officers’ mess.

German airmen' captured in Britain, apparently under the impression that the country is all but conquered, sometimes display an arrogance which is not easy to tolerate. They persist in saluting their interrogators with the well-known “Heil Hitler”—arm upraised and jackboots brought together with a resounding click. One R.A.F. intelligence officer found an answer for the Hitler histrionics. He gave orders that each German airmen who came before him must first remove his jackboots and instead a pair of felt slippers, which the R.A.F. officer provided. The slippers were old ones with backs slit. The Nazis caused no little amusement when they raised their arms, cried “Heil Hitler,” then clicked their heels together—only to find that there was no click. Their arrogance was soon deflated.