MURDER ON THE RHINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18939, 10 February 1925, Page 8

MURDER ON THE RHINE.

LANCE-CORPORAL CROMAH. ■ THE TRIAL OF SWOBODA. ! A WITNESS MAY EE SENT, ] ' ■ " ' [from our own corresp on*dent.J WELLINGTON. Monday. The Government of New Zealand has cabied to the British Government offer* irig to send the only New Zealand witness of the murder at Mulheira, on thg Rhine, in 1919, of Lance-Corporal Cromur for the purpose of testifying before ths Court at which the "ringleader of the Ger-. man gang, Franz Swoboda, is to 6tan<l his trial. Swoboda, who escaped witW another ringleader on the morning aftep the crime, has now returned to visit parents, and was promptly arrested. Details of the death of Lance-Corpora! C'romar show that he was attacked by a> dozen German civilians and shot through the heart before his friend, another New Zealander, who was some distance could render him aid. Swoboda's aceonn pi ices were sentenced to terms of eighteen months' imprisonment at the time as accessories to the act. A Court of inquiry was held the morning after the murder. The Court found as follows:— I "Having ' duly considered the statements made ben fore it, the Court reports that the death, of Lance-Corpora! C. F. Cromar was caused by a wound in the chest, the r«. suit of a shot fired by one of a gans; of German civilians whose identity established."