MUNITIONS FOR CHINA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20899, 13 December 1929, Page 12

MUNITIONS FOR CHINA

SHIPMENTS FROM GERMANY. SECRET TRIAL OF SENDERS. (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, December 11. The Berlin correspondent of the Daily Mail states that Republican newspapers are protesting against the secret trial which began at Kiel on December 10 of Lieutenant Protze, of the German Secret Service, Major Seeman, and five Berlin business men, including the war-time airman, Herr Beltjens, on a charge of attempting to ship munitions to China in January, 1928. When the Kiel Customs officials were examining packing cases labelled “ brass goods,” which filled 16 rail trucks, they discovered no fewer than 8,000,000 rifle cartridges about to be shipped by a Norwegian steamer. The Minister of Defence (General Groener) recently told the Richstag that it was a perfectly simple case and he promised a full inquiry, but when the trial came on, the Public Prosecutor, acting on the Government’s instructions, demanded the exclusion of the public and the press, as there would be revelations which, in the interests of the State, must not be known outside the court. It is now stated that he had been forced to do this because the defence will allege that the military and naval authorities knew and approved of the plan, the failure of which was due to the stupidity of the Customs officers.