HITLER'S ENVOY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21520, 17 June 1933, Page 8

HITLER'S ENVOY

ANTI-NAZI OUTBURSTS INCIDENTS IN LONDON SWASTIKA AT CENOTAPH ,if [FROM OTTB OWN CORRESPONDENT] LONDON, May 16 Herr Alfred Rosenberg, the semiofficial Nazi envoy, left London on Sunday. During his stay in England there were several incidents which are. open to criticism in on© way or another, and certainly they must have helped Herr Rosenberg to form some sort of opinion of British feeling toward Hitlerism. When Herr Rosenberg was leaving bv train from Liverpool Street station there was a hostile demonstration, obviously by Communists, who seem t-o prefer the Soviet form of dictator- • ship to the Hitler brand. Herr Rosenberg stood for some minutes chatting ■ with Herr von Fries, who represented the German Embassy, and with other Germans living in London, and then took his seat in a first-class carriage. The carriage was almost immediately tfelow the steel footbridge which spans the platforms, and just after the door had been closed a number of men who bad collected there leaned over, and with cries of "Down with Hitler 1 Down with Fascism!" flung handfuls of leaflets oh to the platform. Some of these fluttered on to the top of the carriage, some fell on to the footboard of Herr Rosenberg's compartment, and, others were scattered among I the little group of the envoy's countrymen, who, however, ignored them. '' Meanwhile. one of the men had produced a red flag, and while clinging to the side of the bridge, continued to shout at the crowd below. Railway police officers hurried to him and there was a brief struggle. The man fell, but the officers picked him up, and he and the other demonstrators were escorted out? of the station. As the train began to move, amid a chorus of "Auf Wiedersehen" from the Germans on the platform, several men shouted "Down with Hitler. Down with • the Murderer." v- Herr Rosenberg's Wreath Then there was that other incident of the wreath laid by Herr Rosenberg on the Cenotaph. Unfortunately, it bore the Swastika or hooked cross orf the inscription card. A man jumped j out of a motor-car, slashed at the wreath with a razor, grabbed the Nazi emblem from it and drove off. Shortly afterward/Captain James E. Sears, a Mons Star man, a prospective Parliamentary Socialist candidate and chairman of the Aylsham branch of the British Legion, drove up with two other men in a car. He took the wreath in question, conveyed it to the bank of the Thames and flung it into the' river. v Captain Sears waited to give himself up to the police. He was charged at the Bow Street Police Court with stealing a wreath valued at £5, and further with wilfully damaging the wreath. The magistrate asked: You do not K: deny that you were a party to the damage incurred? Captain Sears: I placed the wreath in the car. Whether it was damaged or not I do not know. I am responsible for any damage that was done. What I, did was as a deliberate protest against the desecration of our national war memorial by placing on it a wreath by Hitler's emissary, especially in view of, the fact that the Hitler Government is contriving to do those very things and foster those feelings i which occurred in Germany before the war, for which, many of our fellows suffered and lost their lives in the war." The magistrate dismissed the charge of theft under the Probation of Offenders' Abt. As to the wilful damage, most people would agree that, whatever the defendant's private opinions re ' was an i lll proper and unmanly thing to do. The magistrate was not concerned with his private opinions, nor as to the personality of the giver. On the charge of committing wilful damage he imposed ft fine of 40s. The police recovered the wreath from the river. Herr Hitler's Effigy Defaced An incident at Madame Tussaud's, where the wax figure of Herr Hitler is alleged to have been damaged, had its sequel at the Marylebone Police Court, three men and a woman being brought before Sir. Snell. The woman was discharged, but the men were remanded in custody. It was stated that red paint was found to have been poured over the figure and a placard hung on it reading, "Hitler, a mass murderer." The damage to the uniform alone was £lO, and the head of the figure will have to be remodelled. Mrs. Bradley, the wife of one of the men, tried to make speeches in Court and was removed. The magistrate warned the three men that the Court was not a place for propaganda, and said he would not allow them to make any such speeches as Mrs. Bradley had made when addressing him in their defence. Bradley said he was a Communist worker. "My protest," he said, "was not a protest aimed at Madame Tussaud's, nor an attempt to do malicious damage, but a protest against Rosenberg, the envoy of Hitler, being allowed to represent a murderous Government of that character." The Magistrate: You are doing what I told you not to do. Irving made a similar statement. Slater was saying that he regarded their action was justifiable and_ it was the "duty of every Communist —" when the magistrate ordered the men to be removed. Immediately the men grasped the rail of the dock, shouting, ''Down with Hitler! Down with Fascism!" They were seized by a number of police officers, and after a violent struggle removed from the Court. About ten minutes afterwards the defendants returned quietly to the dock, and the magistrate said he thought it a difficult case and he must take time to consider it. They were remanded in custody for a week.