LIKE A FILM PLOT

Taranaki Daily News, 15 December 1932, Page 14

LIKE A FILM PLOT

ESCAPE FROM LEGION. TWO BOYS’ ADVENTURE. , ‘Two young Englishmen who have gone through a series of amazing adventures which read like a film plot, landed at Rotterdam, Holland, a few weeks ago. They are Stanley Flanagan, aged 18, the Manchester youth, who, with Cochrane Crooks, the young/ nephew of the Mayor of Hartlepool; made one. of the most dramatic escapes on record from the French' Foreign Legion. Both the young men were picked, up in the Straits of Gibraltar by the crew of the British steamer GlenshaWe after they had jumped overboard from another vessel 'in which they., escaped from.iOrah. A correspondent of the “Daily, Chronicle” a few days’ before the youths’ arrival at Rotterdam had a long talk With Flanagan’s brother, Albert, who with the/ Crooks’ family, was taking official steps to secure the release, of the boys. He described Stanley as a" ■ boy Utterly, without fear, arid thirst for travel arid adventure, which had,led him into many/thrilling. experiences. “My father early decided that it would be a good thing to satisfy the. lad’s aihbitioris,” Albert said/ “and he arranged fpr Stanley to work on, a farm near Montreal., He.was not on that farm for 'a*: month when some question of ;- wages arose arid he left the place for good. This 'was his .first real disillusionment in- life. Worse’ was to come.” “Alone iarid without .money Stanley set out- on a trek through the cities ,of Canada eking out a miserable existence 1 by chopping sticks and doing other odd jobs. For 12 month's -he led a wandering life. He became an expert “train jumper.” The life must have been heartbreaking. . He was absolutely down and out, had. no friends, no money/ nothing. /■ / Stanley decided .to return .to England, and boarded a steamer, but the next thing he knew was; that he had arrived a Algiers. When he reached there he got in touch,with the British Consql, and through him I’ was requested to-send on'Stanley’s birth : certificate. In the meantime, , however, Stanley had boarded a boat bound for Italy, and from there stowed himself away in a boat going to Glasgow. “Going home to. Manchester Stanley worked for a few months as a window cleaner, but he could not 'settle down. He enlisted, but apparently did not find the Army agreeable, and came to stay with, us for a week or two. Then he went off on a further tour of adventure, and decided to join the Legion. • “On the way to Morocco, he evidently picked up young Crooks. They soon came to dread the Legion, with its hardships. Then came the news of the escape.. " “When I meet Stanley at Rotterdam I shall persuade him to give up the adventurous life and apply himself to something useful He has had more than his fair share of adventure and hardship. If he does not want to break his mother’s heart he will come home and stay at home.” ,