FORMED BY GERMANS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25941, 6 September 1945, Page 5

FORMED BY GERMANS

“BRITISH FREE CORPS” MEN TRAINED IN PROPAGANDA (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent) LONDON, Sept. 4. An Englishman who lived lor two years in Auckland before joining the N.Z.E.F., is mentioned among the 40 Allied prisoners of war concerned in the “British Free Corps.” The list was compiled by a Canadian soldier accused at a court martial of aiding the enemy. The man is Lance-corporal R. N. Courlander. In a statement said to have been made by the Canadian, Private E. E. Martin, he commented that Courlander was a “ racketeer,” who tried to make a success of the British Free Corps for his own personal benefit. It was openly stated that he expected a commission from the Germans. Private L. T. Freeman, of Birmingham, in evidence, said he, Martin, Courlander, and three others went to an S.S. propaganda school in Hildersheim, where they were issued with S. uniforms, a cap bearing the death’s head symbol, a Union Jack round the right arm, and the B.F.C. 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 B.F.C. would grow into a big organisation to fight Bolshevism and bring Germany and Britain together. Freeman said the day would begin with an 8 o’clock parade, which Martin took and dismissed with a “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 that he might be put on a charge of treason. “The reasons I did what I have done was to gain the confidence of the Germans so that I could obtain information which might later be of use to the British authorities.” He pleaded not guilty to acting as an informer to the enemy and voluntarily acting as a member of the B.F.C. Courlander is detained at an N.Z.E.F. repatriation centre in Kent, where he is awaiting trial by court martial on September 18.