LATE MESSAGES

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 December 1945, Page 2

LATE MESSAGES

PURDY’S DEFENCE.

LONDON, December 20

'When his trial for treason was resumed at the Old Bailey to-day, Walter Purdy said his whole intention in whatever he did while in Germany was to get back to England, so he could continue his activities against the Germans. “Purdy’s mother gave evidence that she received mysterious letters from her son while he was in Germany. They contained a code and bits of poetry. She took them to the Red Cross and later received acknowledgments of them from the Air Ministry and War Office. Private F. FI. Maton, of a commando regiment, who arrived in Court under military escort, said he met Purdy in Berlin. Purdy told him that he was trying to perfect a code for getting information to England by radio. Purdy said he would try his “good-nights” after talks in different ways. Maton agreed that he himself had been charged under the Army Act and sentenced. Margarete Weitemier, a young German woman brought specially from Germany, gave evidence that she lived with Purdy in Berlin from November, 1943. She bqlieved he was working secretly for the British Government. The Gestapo in March, 1944, came to her house and arrested Purdy because, according to them, he was becoming dangerous.

HUNGARIAN EX-MINISTERS

LONDON, Dec. 20

A Hungarian crowd attacked and attempted to lynch ex-Ministers Endre arid Saky, while they were on the way to the Court,, under police escort for continuation of their trial as war criminals, says Reuter’s Budapest correspondent. The men took refuge in a nearby theatre, but both were beaten up before a police car came to the rescue. The crowd also beat up a passerby who objected to the attack against the prisoners. The ex-Min-isters are charged with responsibility for deportation of 700,000 Hungarian Jews.

YAMASHITA’S APPEAL

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20.

The Supreme Court decided to hear oral arguments on January 7 whether or not to intervene in the Yamashita trial, meanwhile withholding action on Yamashita's petitions challenging the authority of the Military Commission in Manila, and requesting a hearing before the Supreme Court.

NAZI SUICIDE.

LUXEMBURG, December 20.

Gustav Simon, the Luxemburg gauleiter during the occupation,, committed suicide after his arrest in the British zone of Germany. He hanged himself with a rope made from padding pulled from the cell mattress. Simon during the occupation precipitated the widespread strikes throughout Luxemburg by conscripting men to fight for Germany.

FACTORY FIRE.

WELLINGTON, December 21

Fire destroyed a two floored joinery shop and a store in the yards of M. G. Templeton and Sons, building contractors, in. Sages Lane, and only prompt work by 12 engines from the central and outlying fire stations, and an unusual absence of wind prevented a serious spread of fire to old wooden houses and stores surrounding, and another timber yard nearby, one area threatened being Plaining Street, populated largely by Chinese. The alarm went shortly after three o’clock, this morning, and 60 firemen worked three hours to extinguish-the fire. Machinery was damaged and the factory will be unable to operate be-, fore three months. The loss is particularly serious because quantities of comoleted joinery, work for State houses were lost and in addition between 20,000 and 25,000 feet of seasoned heart of totara and redwood were lost and quantities of plywood lost or damaged.

SHOPLIFTER SENTENCED.

DUNEDIN, December 21

May Mahs, married, whose shoplifting depredations in various, city stores extended over a period of two years, was sentenced in the Police Court, this morning to 12 months’ imprisonment for theft of articles valued at £276. It took Chief Detective Hall ten minutes to read details of 23 charges and a further blanket charge to cover a large number of articles whose owners are not yet identified. Magistrate Bundle said , that Mahs’ thefts were systematic and showed considerable cunning in that. it was. not until she made the mistake of

sending stolen goods to an auctioneering firm that her crimes were detected.

PROVOST ARRESTED

LONDON, December 20.

British authorities on December 15 arrested Deputy Provost Marshal, Lieut.-Colonel T. C. Irvine, “No. 1 policeman in Berlin,” says the “Daily Mail’s” correspondent. The charges against Irvine, who is confined under close arrest in private quarters of the British zone are not yet disclosed. Meanwhile, widespread investigation is being made into suspected violations of Army regulations by officers stationed in Berlin. The correspondent says that Irvine is a member of the Eighth Army who served with distinction in the Desert. He .is one of the best known and most popular officers in the Berlin garrison, and commanded for the last five months the British military police force in Berlin, and led all the major raids on the notorious German black market in Tiergartcn. Irvine on December 15 used tanks and. armoured cars manned by Hussars in a round-up which led to many important arrests.