BOLT IN DINGHY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20625, 28 November 1941, Page 4

BOLT IN DINGHY

GERMAN INTERNEES SOMES ISLAND GETAWAY POLICE NET CAST WIDE (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Three Germans have escaped from Somes Island internment station. A widespread man-hunt is now in progress to recapture them. They got away in a dinghy belonging to the Agricultural Department, which retains a caretaker on the island, and used improvised oars, which had apparently been prepared and secreted beforehand in preparation for the escape. The oars belonging to the dinghy were still safely under lock and key when the escape was discovered. The missing internees are Hans Finke, a journalist, born about 1911, sft. 7in. tall, dark complexion, brown hair, blue eyes, thick lips and pointed * chin; Carl Oscar Schroeder, a seaman, born about 1918. 6ft. lin. tall, fresh face, fair to reddish complexion, fair hair and blue eyes; and Frederick Georg Theodor Strewe, cheesemaker, aged 30, 6ft. lin. tall, fair complexion, fair hair and blue eyes.

Finke has a scar on his right forearm and may be wearing grey or blue clothes. Schroeder is understood to be tattooed on both arms. Schroeder and Strewe lived in Auckland before they were interned, and Strewe’s wife is living there. Finke is known all over New Zealand. He is a single man and has moved about a good deal.

Names Answered at Roll-Call

The internees were locked in their compounds as usual at 9 p.m. on Wednesday. When the roll was called at 10 p.m. the names of the men now at large were answered. The compounds of all sections of the internees ■ are surrounded by barbed wire fences Bft. high, the only unwired sections being the high locked and barred gates. The men are understood not to be dangerous, and their escape not to be an attempt to get free to wreak damage, but merely to enjoy what liberty they can. Wednesday night was particularly dark and would have assisted their , escape. There is evidence of the most careful planning. The island is under constant patrol- and look-out, and doubtless by some means or other the movements of the guards must have been closely studied by the escapees. All three have been on the island for several months. They speak English well and are dressed in ordinary clothes. It is probable that they have money. It is thought they may try to pass themselves off as Scandinavians. The fact of a seaman being included in the party would indicate that nothing was being left to chance in the escape journey across the harbour. The dinghy in which they escaped was found on the beach near the Petone woollen mills yesterday, and the improvised oars a short distance away. One of the escapees is a German Jew. ,

Under Constant Guard

The compounds are under constant guard and the possibility cannot be overlooked that the men were actually at liberty somewhere on the island before the compounds were locked, and that their names were answered at roll call by other internees. During the afternoons the internees ai’e allowed a good deal of liberty, and there would be ample opportunity for the men to plan out their moves. The guards move round the island throughout the night. Their duty posts are connected with each other and the commandant’s quarters by telephone. The men were first missed at “Reveille” yesterday, approximately 6 a.m. Had it been known that they were in the harbour the previous night or early morning, searchlights could have been trained on the whole harbour area and would have revealed any boat or even swimmers.

The trip with the improvised oars from the island to where the dinghy was found would have taken an hour to an hour and a half. If the men were not missed till yesterday morning and they made shore at Petone about midnight on Wednesday, there would have been ample time for them to communicate with friends or accomplices if they had any, and be assisted on their way out of Wellington. Specially selected police officers, including those with a knowledge of aliens, are engaged in an extensive search in the Wellington district. Police officers elsewhere in possession of full descriptions of the men are also on the look-out. No small craft are missing from the Wellington harbour, and the possibility of the men having put out to sea in a stolen craft has been disposed of, thus concentrating the search to the land, where they may have to depend largely on what assistance, if any, they were able to get when they made the shore at Petone.