GERMAN PEACE PLOT

Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22792, 17 January 1944, Page 5

GERMAN PEACE PLOT

Exposed By British Officers

LONDON. January 15. Three British officers were dropped by parachute in Rumania on Christmas Eve with a photocopy of a German peace offer to Russia, says a Stockholm message. Under the. peace proposal the Germans offered Russia the provinces of Bessarabia and Bukovina, adjoining eastern Rumania.

The three officers said that they had been sent on a special mission and asked to be received by General Antonescu. This was done.

All the officers of the Rumanian General Staff were present. “Producing the photocopy of the German peace proposals, the officers Informed the Rumanians that Germany intended to sell them out to Russia. The three officers were interned,” adds the report. Commenting on the report, the “Svenska Dagbladet” Budapest correspondent says that the Rumanians do not deny the story, but state that the incident is "part of the nerve war and a British propaganda trick.” The Berlin radio has quoted the Foreign Office as saying that British officers and high Secret Service agents landed in Rumania to meet the Rumanian authorities. The Foreign Office described an earlier "peace move” report as ridiculous, and added that the British officers and agents wanted to see the Rumanian authorities, but the only people they saw were the Rumanian police.