TENSION IN SAAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22004, 10 January 1935, Page 9

TENSION IN SAAR

COMING PLEBISCITE MR. KNOX PROTECTED MANSION NOW A FORTRESS TROOPS AND HIDDEN GUNS ELECTRIC ALARM BELLS By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright SAARBRUCKEX. Jan. 8 The chairman of the Saar Governing Commission, Mr. Geoffrey Knox, who is an Australian, is Europe's most closely-guarded man. He is not left unprotected for one minute, and has his personal bodyguard, even when eating and sleeping. Mr. Knox is virtually his own prisoner and rarely leaves the Schloss, his mansion in Saarbrucken. Armed detectives accompany him when lie leaves the Schloss, which hitherto was a quiet house in a hackwater of the city, but now is as impenetrable as any remote castle. About 100 hidden guns, squads of soldiers and policemen, and an ingenious system of electric alarm bells make it a fortress of maximum security. Forty Czecho-Slovakian troops are always ready, and they have a special entrance from the barracks to the Schloss. Mr. Knox receives a huge daily postbag, which often contains violently threatening letters from all parts of the world.

VOTERS DISQUALIFIED LEANINGS REVEALED SUPPORTERS OF HITLER (Received January 9, 7.15 p.m.) SAARBRUCKEN. Jan. 8 Five men on entering a polling booth at Beckingen, on Sunday, when 2000 workers and others who will be engaged next Sunday (the day of the plebiscite) recorded their votes, gave the Hitler salute and were immediately disqualified. A woman who said, " I was born a German and I want to die a German,' was also disqualified on the ground that she had indicated that she had voted for the transfer of the Saar to Germany. The German Front, the Nazi organisation, protested to the Plebiscite Commission against the disqualifications, and fearing to lose many votes next Sunday it is vigorously impressing upon Nazis that they must not salute or shout " Heil Hitler " wjiile at the polling stations. This practice is most difficult to suppress as such greetings are automatic with the thousands of voters from Germany. Prisoners in the Neunkirchen gaol struck against the plebiscite and refused to vote unless they were liberated next Saturday. The authorities demurred, whereupon 17 of the 42 prisoners withheld their votes.