TUNNEL DUG

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24288, 1 June 1942, Page 6

TUNNEL DUG

MASS ESCAPE PLAN INTERNEES IN AUSTRALIA SYDNEY, May 30 An attempted mass escape by prisoners at a South Australian internment camp was foiled, and another prisoner ■who had escaped recaptured through a chance meeting at an Adelaide cafe. The mass escape failed because of the vigilance of a guard who saw specks of dust on the shirt of an internee. When questioned the internee admitted the plot. The guards found a tunnel •ift. 6in. underground but they allowed the internees to work on for weeks before stepping in nnd spoiling the plans.

Tito internees carried a war the soil from the tunnel in their handkerchiefs and hid it under the huts or scattered it over the ground. The tunnel was so well built that no timber was needed to support it. The instigator of the plot has been discovered.

The prisoner who escaped was Siegfried .Taket Kraus Brahmst. aged 20, a Danish national horn in Germany. He escaped on Sunday, May 17. Last Monday ho walked into an Adelaide cafe. Unfortunately for him. dining there was Mr. Geoffrey S. J?eed. K.C., who is chairman of the advisory eommitteo which hears internees' appeals.

I Mr. Reed had read a few hours | earlier of Brahmst's escape and imj mediately recognised him as an unsucj cessful appellant who had appeared j before the advisory committee. Mr. j Reed whispered an explanation to the friend with whom he was dining and ! while the friend telephoned the police j Mr. Reed watched the escapee from j behind a pillar until the police arrived. I When he escaped Brahmst had about I £ll and a sailor's pass which might | have gained him admittance to wharves !or ships. Later he bought a blue j suit, hut when he was recaptured he | had £27. Military intelligence officers j will hold an inquiry into his escape j and will investigate how he came to be j in possession of so much money. j FIRES AT WEEK-END : SEVERAL MINOR OUTBREAKS i Several small outbreaks of fire wera , attended by brigades in the citv and | suburbs yesterday afternoon. * The ! damage in every instance was slight. S I'our of the calls were to chimney fires | and one to a small fire in the rubbish | tip of a box factory at Morningside, which was attended by the Mount Eden and Mount Albert brigades. One machine attended a fire in a twostoreyed wooden dwelling at 3 Matai Road, Devonport, at about 1 p.m . which started in a wooden box in which hot ashes had been placed. The fire was quickly under control, the only damage being the charring of several'weatherboards. Damage totalling about £lO was caused by a fire in a small shed in College Hill during the afternoon. USEFUL EQUIPMENT The use of emergency fire equipment prevented a serious fire at the Hutt \ alley Memorial Technical College at Petone. Just belore the evening classes began, a hessian curtain was blown against a coke heater and caught fire Surrounding material quickly blazed up. An ample supply of stored water and an efficient bucket pump were on the spot, and those who discovered the fire quickly quenched the major blaze. Smouldering wood in the ceiling was dealt with by the Petone Fire Brigade. The principal, Mr. A. McFadyen. j states that the position would have been extremely serious had the fire not been quickly discovered and if the emergency plant had not been there.

WOMAN'S FATAL INJURY (P.A.) WELLINGTON. Sunday A woman was found in a house in Ronlcott Street, Wellington, late on Saturday night with an injury to her head from which she died in the Wellington Hospital on Sunday afternoon. It is believed she had been injured in a fracas. She was 31 rs. Maud Purcell. aged 3S, widow.

ALLEGED ILLEGAL ENTRY <O.C.) HAMILTON. Sunday

Two Chinese were arrested in Hamilton and one in Te Kniti yesterday and charged with entering Now Zealand without a permit. Phev wor© v&manded to appear in Auckland.

HELP FROM BRITAIN

AUSTRALIA'S SECURITY

SYDNEY, May 31 Discussions between Mr. Churchill and the Australian Foreign Minister, Dr. Lvatt, on Australia's security are at a stage where it should soon be possible tor Mr. Curt in to make a statement, says the London correspondent of the Sydney Sun.

There is not the slightest doubt that til 6 conversations have gone extremely well throughout; and that Mr. Churchill and Dr. Evatt have achieved a personal understanding of real value to both sides. Security reasons obviously make it impossible to translate the results of the negotiations into details, but Australia certainly seems to have reason to feel heartened and hopeful.

Dr. Evatt, among other things, lias asked that everything should not be left to America. Neither Mr. Churchill nor any of his colleagues has quarrelled with that, and, all being well, Australians will see for themselves in due course tangible evidence.