ARREST IN BERLIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21467, 15 April 1933, Page 9

ARREST IN BERLIN

ENGLISHMAN CHARGED ALLEGED RED LEANINGS British Wireless RUGBY, April 12 In reply to a question in tho House of Commons, the Foreign Secretary, Sir John Simon, stated that an Englishman, Mr. Geoffrey Fraser, was arrested in Berlin on April 4 because ho was in possession of Communist documents, including matter relating to subversive propaganda and untrue statements regarding atrocities in Germany. Mr. Fraser was further suspected of the intention of spreading these untrue reports among tho men of the German Army and tho police. The final indictment was not yet drawn up. Arrangements had been made for the British Consul to visit Mr. Fraser. Ho had received every consideration at the hands of the police and was reported to bo in good health. A message from Berlin on April 4 stated: —Nazi storm troops arrested a journalist, Geoffrey Fraser, a British subject, and an alleged Communist, in bed and conveyed him to an unknown destination. The police imprisoned another Briton, Mr. T. C. Catchpool, International Secretary of the Society of Friends. Tho British Embassy is investigating both cases. Mr. Catchpool was. released later as he was not suspected of trying to evade trial nor of hiding evidence. It transpires that his arrest was due to a washerwoman who jumped to tho conclusion that bundles of leaflets and pamphlets in English in his home must be seditious, although she could not read them. Nazis found copies of Mr. Catchpool's reports to England on the situation in Germany, but the contents had never been disclosed outside Quaker circles.