COUNT SURPRISED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23059, 9 June 1938, Page 12

COUNT SURPRISED

AUSTRALIAN INSUu|J| WRITERS' "WELCOME" RECEIVED AS GUESTS ATTACK TJPON GERMANY I (Received June 8, 8.37 p.m.) 1 SYDNEY, Jane 8 . * Count von Luckner got the surprise of his life aboard his yacht Seeteufel' - to-day when a group from the School of Modern Writers, who had expressed a desire to present to him an "address of welcome." He was compelled to listen to tilings about Nazi Germany that made bim boil with in. dignation. L The address of welcome consisted of a parchment scroll, read by Mr. H. Collingwood in the presence of his silent colleagues. The text of the "address" began:— "In the name of the tens of thousands of political prisioners incarcerated in German concentration camps, the tens of thousands of victims who have been treated with unspeakable barbarity in the Brown Houses, the tens of thousands of pacifists, socialists, liv' erals and Jews condemned to slow economic strangulation—"

Count von Luckner had heard only' the first few lines, when he cried out: "Gentlemen! Gentlemen!" and placed his hands over his ears. He appeared bewildered.

Mr. Collingwood, undaunted, read the remainder of the "address," which was a trenchant condemnation of Nazi rule and scientists and the Churches, concluding by welcoming Count von Luckner to "our free and democratic Australia."

Count von Luckner, now thoroughly indignant, described the address as an insult. He declared he was not concerned with politics and rebuked the writers for coming aboard as his guests and then reading such a document. A hot argument ensued before the writers withdrew, insisting that their address was not intended as an insult to Count von Luckner personally.