INTERNEES ESCAPE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24776, 28 November 1941, Page 4

INTERNEES ESCAPE

SOMES ISLAND CAMP THREE GERMANS AT LARGE STOLEN DINGHY USED (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 27. Three Germans have' escaped from the Somes Island internment station, and a widespread man-hunt is now in progress to recapture them. They got away in a dinghy belonging to the Department of Agriculture, which retains a "caretaker on the island, and used .improvised oars which had apparently been prepared and secreted beforehand in preparation for the escape. The oars belonging to, the dinghy were still safely under lock and key when the escape was discovered. The missing Germans are:

Hans Finke, a journalist, aged about 30, sft 7in tall, dark complexion, brown hair, blue eyes, thick lips, pointed chin. Carl Oscar Schroeder, a seaman, aged about 23, 6ft lin tall, fresh face, fair to reddish complexion, fair hair, blue eyes.

Frederick Georg Thcodor Strewe, a cheesemaker, aged 30, 6ft lin tall, fair complexion, fair hair, blue eyes. Finke has a scar on his right forearm, and may be wearing grey or blue clothes. Schroeder is understood to be tattooed on both .arms. Schroeder and Strewe lived in Auckland before they were interned, and Strewe's wife is living there. Finke is known all over New Zealand. He is a single man, and has moved about a good deal. The internees were locked in their compounds as usual at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, and when the roli was called at 10 p.m. the names of the men now at large were answered. The compounds of all sections of the internees are surrounded by barbed wire fences eight feet high, the only unwired sections being high locked and barred •rates. The men are understood not to be dangerous. The view is also held that they have not attempted to get free in order to wreak damage, but merely to enjoy what liberty they can Careful Planning There is evidence of most careful planning. The island is under constant patrol and the movements of the guards must have > been closely studied by the Germans. All three have been on the island several months. They speak English well and are dressed in ordinary clothes. It is probable that they have money, and it is thought that they may try to pass themselves off as Scandinavians. The dinghy in which the men escaped was found on the beach near the Petone woollen, mills to-day and the improvised oars a short away. The possibility cannot be overlooked that the men were actually at liberty somewhere on the island before the compounds were locked and that their names were answered at the roll call by other internees. During the afternoons the internees are allowed a good deal of liberty and there would have been ample opportunity for the men to plan their moves. Guards move round the island throughout the night. and their duty posts are connected with the commandant's quarters by telephone. Missed at Reveille The men were first missed at reveille to-day at approximately 6 a.m. The trip from the island to the place where the dinghy was found would have taken an hour to an hour and a-half, so that the men may have had ample time to communicate with friends or accomplices, if they had any, and be assisted on their way out of Wellington. Specially selected police officers, including men with knowledge of aliens, are engaged in an extensive search in the Wellington district. -No small craft are missing frcm the Wellington harbour and the possibility of the men having put out to sea in a stolen craft has been disposed of.