LOST GERMAN SOLDIER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21068, 30 December 1931, Page 10

LOST GERMAN SOLDIER.

POSSIBLY IN NEW ZEALAND. WIDOWED MOTHER'S INQUIRY. A copy of the Christmas number of the Auckland Weekly News, mailed to an address in Germany three years ago, has aroused speculation as to whether it may have been posted by a German soldier who has been-, missing since the first year of the war. In' December, 1914, Private Jacob Eaum, of the Fifth Imperial Reserve Infantry Regiment, went into action with his regiment near Ypres and has been missing ever since. All efforts to trace him proved fruitless and he was officially declared missing and believed to be dead. In December, 1928, Mrs. Phillip Hubrich, of Rhinpfalz, Bavaria, a sister of the missing man, received from New Zealand the Christmas Annual of the Auckland Weekly News, and was much puzzled by this, as neither she nor any of her friends has any connection with New Zealand. A friend of Mr. and Mrs. Hubrich, who wag recently shown the paper, evolved the theory that the sender might have been the missing soldier, Jacob Baum. Private Baum's widowed mother saw a likeness to her son in a photograph of a man'on horseback. It can be definitely stated, however, thai the rider is not her 6011, but a New Zealander. The mother is much concerned at the possibility, that her son may still be alive and > the friend who suggested this has written to the editor of the Auckland Weekly News asking hi*, assistance in probing the matter further. 'Pie evidence, so far disclosed appears very slender, indeed, but doubtless the publicity given to the inquiry will lead to the discovery of the missing man should he be in this country.