EXPULSION BY GERMANY

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 4 November 1933, Page 5

EXPULSION BY GERMANY

GIVEN FORTY=EIGHT HOURS JOURNALIST TELLS STORY. - DENIALS OF ESPIONAGE. WORK ONLY AS PRESSMAN. (United Press Association—By Electrio Telegiapu wpyruini.) Received 9.50 a.m. to-day. LONDON, Nov. 3. The Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Sir John Simon, is fully investigating the Ranter case personally. “The Times” says the matter cannot bo left in this inconclusive state.

Mr Noel Panter, interviewed after his release and expulsion by Germany, said he signed a paper agreeing to leave Germany in 48 hours, failing which he would be rearrested. During the last three days lie was not allowed to leave his cell, which wag next door to that Herr Hitler occupied after the Nazi “Putsch” in 1923.

“Throughout the interrogations I denied I was a spy' or .that I had ever seen military service,” he said. “All the qiiestions .indicated that. .1 was suspected of espionage. I emphasised that I always acted solely and simply as a journalist, but I refused to disclose the sources of my information, saying that this was the concern of the “Daily Telegraph.” The Foreign Press Association, with the exception of the German committeemen, who opposed the action and withdrew prior to the vote, passed a resolution reaffirming that since the liberty of the Press is the basis of journalistic work, journalists’ individual liberty should he safeguarded. Therefore they sympathised with Mr Panter.