DRUGGED SON TO ESCAPE

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 August 1942, Page 8

DRUGGED SON TO ESCAPE

CRAWLED OVER FRONTIER

LONDON, April 25. Mrs Haden Guest, daughter-in-law of the Socialist M.P. for North Islington, described yesterday how she had drugged her four-year-old son Anthony to escape from the Germans over the 'frontier of Occupied France. On being transferred from the camp at Besancon, to Paris, they got away from their guards. “I was helped and hidden by Frencn people,” she said. “Later, disguised as a peasant woman in deep mourning, I took Anthony to train to the dividing lines, after having given him sleeping tablets so that he should not speak English. “A Frenchman agreed to guide us into Unoccupied France. On approaching the frontier we began to crawl on our _stomachs. And we crawled 'lor iTx hours, with long periods during which we were motionless, waiting for an' opportunity to slip through the gap between two sentries. “I told Anthony that there would be no more birthday parties or Christmas presents or nice food if he said a single word, but that if he kept quiet he would never see a German soldier again. He was duly impressed. “I harnessed him with string to myself, and he crawled a few feet ahead of me. A tug of the string on Anthony’s right hand meant that ne had to turn to the right, and so forth. “Once over the border and in the unoccupied zone, I found people friendly. Gradually we made our wav towards Spain. “My last, recollection of France was that of a porter who refused a lip. ‘We owe England a debt of honour and we are waiting for you,’ he said to me.” .