SPY EXECUTED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 2, 4 January 1943, Page 3

SPY EXECUTED

DUTCH AGENT OF NAZIS PRETENDED ESCAPE London, Jan. 1. The Home Office announced that a German secret service agent was executed in Wandsworth prison, London, to-day. He was J. H. Dronkers, a Dutch subject, aged 46. Dronkers originally was a seaman, but shortly before the outbreak of war he obtained a situation in the Dutch General Post Office at The Hague, and held this position until he came to England. He was a member of the Dutch Nazi Party before the war.

His method of entering the country was to get himself picked up at sea as a Dutch refugee who had escaped from the Germans.

He was sighted by a British trawler, which saw a yacht flying the Dutch flag and giving distress signals. On being taken aboard the trawler Dronkers expressed his joy, danced on the deck, and began singing. When interviewed by the military and other authorities in Britain Dronkers said he hoped to get useful work in this country with the British or Netherlands Governments, possibly as a clerk. His story did not satisfy the authorities, and he was detained while inquiries were made. He eventually decided to make a statement, under caution, in which he admitted that he had been sent to Britain by the German secret service.

He had been trained as a spy for many months and taught, how to use invisible ink for sending messages which were to be forwarded to neutral addresses. He had been particularly asked, to secure details of the location and strength of American and Canadian troops. The yacht from which he was picked up had been supplied by the German secret service.