NO SATISFACTION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 263, 4 October 1940, Page 7

NO SATISFACTION

PROTEST TO RUMANIA.

IMPRISONED BRITONS

(United Press Association—Copyright.)

(British Official Wireless.) (Rec. 9.40 a.m.) RUGBY, Oct. 3. Despite the assurances by tlie Rumanian Premier (General Antonescu) following Lord Halifax’s strong representations to the Rumanian Minister in London on Sunday five British subjects are still under arrest in Bucharest, and no satisfaction has been received as to their treatment.

Meanwhile it is confirmed in London that another British subject, Mr A. Millar, has been imprisoned in Bucharest by persons in civilian clothes, doubtless members of the Iron Guard, and that the Rumanian police profess to he quite genuinely in complete ignorance of his fate. Sir Samuel Hoare is pursuing continuous inquiries and is losing no opportunity of explaining the grave view of Britain regarding a series of incidents which are intolerable as between civilised countries. It remains to he seen how'far General Antonescu will be able or willing to control the activities’ of irresponsible members of the Iron Guard, who appear to l>e influenced only by & uesire to imitate Nazi methods.

The Foreign Secretary (Lord Halifax) on September 29 summoned the Rumanian Charge d’Affaires for an explanation ot the arrest and brutal ill-treatment of five British subjects in Rumania. They are: Mr Charles' Brasier, engineer, and Mr Reginald Young, chief chemist of the Koruana Americana Oil Company, who were badly beaten up at Ploesti and forced to sign a declaration that they were preparing sabotage; a Canadian mining engineer, Mr Tracey, his wife, and an assistant, Mr Anderson. The British Consul succeeded in seeing the men after some obstruction and found they had apparently been subjected to a severe manhandling. Attempts to see Mrs Tracey and to again visit the men failed. ~ As announced yesterday, Mr A. Miller, a high-placed official of the Astra Roniano Oil Company, has now been arrested.