PURDY TREASON CASE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26033, 22 December 1945, Page 7

PURDY TREASON CASE

MOTHER GIVES EVIDENCE MYSTERIOUS LETTERS (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 20. When his trial for treason was resumed at Old Bailey to-day Walter Purdy said his whole intention in whatever he did while in Germany was to get back to England so that he could continue his activities against the Germans. Purdy’s mother gave evidence that she received mysterious letters from her son while he was in Germany. They contained a code and bits of poetry. She took them to the Red Cross and later received acknowledgments of them from the Air Ministry and the War Office. Private F. H. Maton, of a commando regiment, who arrived in court under a military escort, said he met Purdy in Berlin. They were both broadcasting for the Germans. Purdy told him that he was trying to perfect a code for getting information to England by radio. Purdy said he would try his “ Good nights ” after the talks in different ways. Maton admitted that he himself had been charged under the Army Act and sentenced. Margaret Weitemier, a young German woman brought specially from Germany, gave evidence that she lived with Purdy in Berlin from November, 1943. She believed he was working secretly for the British Government. The Gestapo in March, 1944, came to her house and arrested Purdy because, according to them, he was becoming dangerous.