BOMB OUTRAGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 89, 14 March 1941, Page 5

BOMB OUTRAGE

STARTLING REVELATIONS. BOMBS IN LUGGAGE. (United Press Association—Copyright.) (British. Official Wireless.) (Rec. 11 a.m.) RUGBY, Mar. 13. Details of the bomb outrage at the Pera Palace Hotel, Istanbul, on March 11, are given in a report from the former British Minister to Sofia (Mr G. Rendel), which has been received in London. Mr Rendel states that the bomb was contained in one of two suitcases which were surreptitiously added to the hand luggage of the British Legation party before it left Sofia. As a result of careful enquiry the following facta have been established:— The two suitcases were placed on the train when it left Sofia. The stage at which these were added to the luggage has not yet been clearly established, but. it seems probable that they were brought to the Legation and treated as belonging to some member of the party. Messrs H. A. J. Embury and D. Debethel, clerks to the Air Attache and Military Attache, respectively, took charge of the suitcases but, having been unable to find any owners for them after the change of carriages at the frontier station of Svilengrad, opened them. They appeared to contain dirty clothing, shaving materials, and old Turkish newspapers (the object of which may have been purposely to throw suspicion on some Turkish national), and in one case one and in the other two anode electric dry batteries. The case which contained the two batteries was taken to the Peru Palace Hotel by Mr Debethel and that which contained one was taken to the Alp Hotel by Mr Embury. Mr Embury was on his way to the Pera Palace Hotel to see Mr Debethel when he heard the explosion. On seeing the results, it occurerd to him that what appeared to be dry batteries in the suitcases might, in fact, be bombs of enemy origin.

With the utmost presence ot mind he hurried back to his hotel, opened the suitcase containing the single battery, and threw the battery into a pit in some open ground nearby, thus probably averting a second disaster.

The Turkish police were immediately informed and retrieved the battery and removed what turned out to be a fuse, and found it was, in fact, a bomb filled with a powerful charge of T.N.T. It was, therefore, clear that powerful bombs had been added to the luggage by some hostile agent before the party left Sofia. It appears probable that the intention was that they should explode in the train, which would have been ; wrecked with great loss of life. The escape of the majority of the , members of the party is providential, and the greatest credit is duo to Mr Embury for his courageous action and , presence of mind. : Agency messages from Cairo report ; that Mr Eden has sent a message of sympathy to Mr Rendel through the , British Ambassador at Ankara. 'The Foreign Secretary’s telegram ■; said: “Please inform Mr Rendel of my 1 horror and disgust on reading of the dastardly attempt on himself and the members of your staff. 1 am deeply distressed at the reports that members '1 of your staff and Mr Bendel’s staff • have been injured. Please give them my sympathy and good wishes for a speedy recovery. I shall be glad if you convey to the Turkish Government • 1 an expression of my deep sympathy in i the loss of their nationals as a result of the dastardly outrage.” 1 German and Italian radio comment ! on the incident includes such cynical statements as “it is the custom of British diplomats to carry explosives in their diplomatic bags.”