ESCAPED HUN IN LONDON HOTEL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16036, 22 January 1918, Page 3

ESCAPED HUN IN LONDON HOTEL.

“TIP” FOR WAITER OUT OF £l7. A German prisoner of war, Lieutenant Paul Sclicuraann, who recently' e»capoli from the Chippenham (M iltshire) camp, was recaptured at Boilomo s piivat© hotel, Jermyu Street, London. 3VIr. Andrew BoHorno, tli© proprietor of the hotel, describing tho capture to a Daily Mail representative, said: “Schucmann booked a room here about 4 o’clock in tins afternoon. He was smartly dressed in dark grey clothes. 1 thought he was a wounded British officer. Later ho* wont out and did not return until nearly midnight. “Next morning I saw for the first time that ho had registered his name and address in the German style; THOMAS MANN, Bristol, High Street, 145. I at orice suspected that ‘Mr. Mann’ was a German, and as I watched him at his breakfast my suspicions were confirmed. ~ , , “I asked him in English if his breakfast was all right. He replied, rc.s, it is very good. I am enjoying «• Then 1 told him in German that he could not have his room that evening ,as it had been lot. Ho merely smiled and said nothing. Then I wont out into Piccadilly and brought in a plainclothes policeman. We allowed Mr. Mann’ to finish his breakfast and then I said to him, ‘You are a German soldier. It’s the fortune of war. Here is a police officer.’ , Scheumann merely smiled and called for his bill. Ho paid and wanted to give the waiter 65., but I said that lialf-a-crown was enough, and he handed that amount to the waiter. At Vino Street, police station Scheumann admitted his identity and said that after escaping from Chippenham ho took a train for London. That night he stayed at an hotel near Marble Arch. He went to the New Theatre the next night. “He also said that after escaping he changed from his uniform into a suit he had made himself out of army blankets. He bought a mackintosh before coming to London, and on arriving here changed his clothes for those he wore when captured. His bag contained about £l7 in money.”