“BRITISH FREE CORPS”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 214, 10 September 1945, Page 5

“BRITISH FREE CORPS”

ENGLISHMAN ON TRIAL London, Sept. 4. An Englishman who lived two years in Auckland before joining the N.Z.E.F. is mentioned among 4<j Allied prisoners of war concerned in the "Br.tsh Free Corps," the list was compiled by a Canadian soldier accused at a court-martiai of aiding the enemy. The man is Lance-Corpora! R. N. Couriander. In a statement said tu have been made by the Canadian, Private E. B. Martin, he commented that Couriander was a "racketeer.” He tried to make a success of the British Free Corps for his own personal benefit. He openly stated that lie expected a comm ssion from the Germans. Private L. T. Freeman, of Birmingham, in evidence said that he, Martin Couriander and three others 'xent to the S.S. Propaganda School in Hildersheim, where they were issued

with S.S. uniforms, a cap bearing a deathshead symbol, a Union Jack round the right arm and the British Free Corps flash for the left arm. They also were issued with police pistols. Captain Roepke, who was a German in command of the British Free Corps, told them it would grow into a big organisation to fight Bolshevism and hri: g Germany and Britain together. Private Freeman said the day would begin with eight o'clock parade, which Mart n look, and dismissed with a "Heil Hiller" salute. At a conference they had Couriander’said. "Well, wc have raised our right arm, but what we say under our breath is nobody's business." Martin, in a statement said he realised he mi ht be put on a charge of treason. The reason I did what 1 have done was to gain the confidence of lhe Germans so that I could obtain informal on which might later be of use to the British authorities." He pleaded not guilty to acting as an informer to the enemy and voluntarily acting as a member of the British Free Corps. Couriander is detained in an N.Z.E.F. repatriation centre at Kent, where ho awaiting court-martial on September 18.