ANOTHER TREASON TRIAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 302, 22 December 1945, Page 5

ANOTHER TREASON TRIAL

BRITISH NAVAL ENGINEER Rccd. 6 p.m. London, Dec. 20. When his trial for treason was resumed at the Old Bailey to-day, Walter Purdy, a former naval engineer, said his whole intention in whatever he did while in Germany was to get back to England so that he could continue his activities against Fne Germans. Purdy’s mother gave evidence that she received mysterious letters from her son whie he was in Germany. They contained a code anu bits of poetry. She took them to the Rod Cross and later received acknowledgments of them from the Air Ministry and the War Office. Private F. IT. Maton, of a Commando regiment, who arrived in Court under military escort, said he met Purdy in Berlin. They were both broadcasting for the Germans. Purdy cold him that he was trying Io perfect a code for getting information to Eng-1 land by radio. Purdy said he would I try his “Goodnights’ after talks In' different ways. Maton agreed that he! himself had been charged under the' Army Act: and sentenced. Margarete Weitemier, a young German woman brought specially from Germany, gave evidence that she lived wit )i Purdy in Berlin from November, 1943. She believed he was working secretly for the British Government. The Gestapo, in March, 1941, came to her house and arrested Purdy, because according to them, he was becoming dangerous.