BRITISH FREE CORPS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25300, 6 September 1945, Page 6

BRITISH FREE CORPS

COURT-MARTIAL CHARGES N.Z.E.F. MEMBER MENTIONED (N.Z.P.A Special Correspondent) LONDON, Sept. 4 An Englishman who lived for two years in Auckland before joining the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, Lance-Corporal It. N. Courlander, is mentioned among 40 Allied prisoners of war alleged to have been concerned in the "British .Free Corps." The list was compiled by a Canadian soldier accused at a court-martial of aiding the enemy. The Canadian, Private E. B. Martin, is alleged to have made a statement in which he commented on Lance-Corporal Courlander as "a racketeer," and said: "He tried to make a success of the British Free-Corps for his own personal benefit. He openly stated that he expected a commission from the Germans." Private L. T. Freeman, of Birmingham, giving evidence, said that he, Martin, Courlander and three others went to an S.S. propaganda school in Hiklersheim, _ where they were issued with S.S. uniforms, a cap bearing the death's head symbol, a Union Jack round the right arm and a British Free Corps flash for the left arm. They were also issued with police pistols. Captain Roepke, who was the German in command of the British Free Corps, told them the corps would grow into a big organisation to fight Bolshevism and bring Germany and Britain together. Freeman said the day would begin with an eight o'clock parade, which Martin took and dismissed with a "Heil Hitler." There was some objection to the "Heil Hitler" saluting, and at a conference they had Courlander said: "Well, we have to raise our right arm, but what we say under our breath is nobody's business." Martin, in a statement, said he realised he might face a charge of treason. "The reason I did what I have done," he said, "was to cnin the confidence of the Germans so that I could obtain information which might later on be of use to the British authorities." He pleaded not guilty to a charge of acting as an informer to the enemy and voluntarily acting as a member of the British Free Corps. Courlander is detained at an N.Z.E.F. repatriation centre in Kent, where he is awaiting court-martial on September 18.