EMDEN’S BELL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21978, 13 June 1933, Page 10

EMDEN’S BELL

ON THE WAY TO GERMANY ALLEGED PAYMENT OP £l6O. ~ (Prom Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY. June 1. Another chapter has been written of the remarkable story concerning Australia’s most interesting war trophy, the bell of the German cruiser Emden, which was sunk by the Sydney.' The bell was first stolen from the Naval Depot at Garden Island, in Sydney Harbour, and was later dug up in the Sydney Domain by detectives and members of the Commonwealth Secret Service. It was* then placed in the Australian War Museum at Sydney for safe keeping, but it disappeared just as mysteriously from there, despite the special precautions that had been taken by the Commonwealth authorities. Sydney detectives are now convinced that the bell is on the German steamer Main, now en route from Sydney to Germany, and they will ask German detectives to search for the bell as soon as the Main reaches a German port. Coincident with the disappearance of the bell from the war museum, the detectives in Sydney discovered that a middle-aged foreigner had disappeared from his home. He has not since been seen. According to information which has reached the detectives, the bell changed hands in Sydney for £l6O, and it was hoped that if efforts made to smuggle the boll into Germany were successful it would be sold privately in that country for £IOOO. The Main left Sydney on May 2 bound for Continental ports, and immediately after she had cleared Sydney the detectives secured information which caused them to act. They communicated with the Customs officials in Melbourne and Fremantle, and although the ship was searched there was no trace of the bell.-. This is not surprising, as the Main was fully loaded with a cargo of wool and other products. In the meantime the Commonwealth authorities have been making exhaustive investigations, and they are convinced that they are on the track of the bell. No blame is laid on the agents of the ship nor on the German authorities in_ Sydney, but it is thought that the precious bell was smuggled aboard by a member of the crow, who may have been acting for some private individual in Germany. The German Consul-general has refused to comment on the episode, but he has cabled details of the allegations to his Government, and the Australian detectives are keenly awaiting the next development.