GIRL SOLDIERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 101, 30 April 1937, Page 8

GIRL SOLDIERS

BODY ON MOUNTAIN CIVIL WAR MYSTERY DID SHE FACE FIRING SQUAD” A mystery as strange and tragic as ever a novelist conceived has been provided by the finding of a bulletriddled body on a lonely mountain slope just over the Spanish frontier, and by a young Englishman’s suicide in a Paris suburb, states a French correspondent of the News of the World. The first victim was dressed in rough soldiering clothes, but an examination of the body revealed that it was that of a young woman, and everything points to the fact that she came from England. To-day the French authorities believe that although she and the Englishman died far apart, the two tragedies are closely related. Shepherd’s Story. In the girl’s pockets were found a passport made out in the name of “John Davies, born at Merthyr Tydvil, 1915”; and a picture postcard addressed to "John Davies" at a Paris address, but inscribed “Tn Megan, with my love." Inquiries soon established that the passport was an old one, issued when Mr. Ramsay MacDonald was Foreign Secretary, and altered to suit the description given. The body was found by shepherds, who related that on the afternoon before the discovery they saw a young soldier roaming the mountain as though looking for a path into France,

They hailed the stranger, but he appeared anxious to avoid conversation, and they did not persist. At nightfall they encountered an insurgent patrol, who asked if they had seen a young man.

They denied having seen him. but later heard a volley ring out from the direction where the body was subsequently found. Later the patrol came to the shepherd’s hut and asked for drinks. One of the soldiers said they had found their man and finished him off. As soon as it was daylight the shepherds went in the direction of the firing close to the French frontier, and found the body. I'he scene now changes to Paris—to an apartment house in the suburb of Suresnes, where the young En-lis'-'-man, who had given the name of “Almeric Gray" committed suicide.

He left a sealed letter addressed to the British Consul, in which he stated that he had decided to take his life after his experience in Spain, where he had gone to fight with the International Column.

Among his papers the police found a photograph of a young woman signed “Megan,” and they are satisfied that it is identical in all respects with tl.e features of the mystery girl found dead in the mountains close to Bayonne, as shown in the death-mask made before the burial.

Furthermore, the handwriting of "Almeric Gray” corresponds closely to that of the writer of the picture nostcard found on the body of "John Davies.”

It has transpired that in conversation when he first arrived at the apartment house “Gray” declared that fate had struck him a cruel blow in Spain. In the fighting around Malaga he had been separated from his dearest. "pal” who had certainly been killed.

To an English boarder he gave the name of his “pal” as "John Davies,” and explained that they had set out from England together to fight in Spain. He blamed himself for his death, declaring that he should have kept near him and shared his fate, if he could not save him.

Assuming that the mystery girl found dead on the mountain was, in fact, the lost "pal” of the dead man of Suresnes and the "Megan” of the photographs and postcard, there can be no question of “Gray” having learned definitely of her fate, for the investigation shows that both deaths took place about the same time. The British Consul in Paris has undertaken the task of tracing the relatives of “Gray” but both he and the British representative at Bayonese are satisfied that the passport of "John Davies” affords no real clue to the identity. It is now known that in its original form this passport was issued in 1927 to a British subject in London, who subsequently reported its loss while on n visit to the Continent:,