IN NAZI GAOL

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20888, 21 August 1939, Page 10

IN NAZI GAOL

I j ENGLISH GIRL CHARGED ILL AFTER HUNGER STRIKE SYMPATHY OF VILLAGERS (Times Air Mail Service.) LONDON, July 21 There are grave fears for the health of twenty-eight-year-old Gabrielle Church, who was arrested five months ago by the Gestapo (German secret police) in Vienna on charges of violating the currency laws. Prayers are being said for her in the church of her home village in the west of England, reports the “Daily Express.” She is still in hospital, where she was taken after a hunger strike. H?r father, Mr F. W. Church, who lives in retirement, is worried over a statement by the prison officers that her health is “as good as can be expected.” “It has been impossible to gel direct contact with her,” he said yesterday. “No one in the British consulate in Vienna has been allowed to sec her. We have not even been able to tell her we know where she is, and that we arc doing all wo can to help her.” Miss Church, one of whose main interests is English folk dancing, made a second home for herself in Vienna before it became part of greater Germany. A professor of singing then told her she had a remarkable voice and undertook its training, which ceased after the anschluss. “Is It A Crime?” Mr Church said: “She had many

I friends. Some were Jews, and she • refused to drop them when organised I anti-Semitism began. I “Politics didn't interest her. I don’t know what the German authorities mean to imply when they talk about her activities being ‘inimical to the German Slate.’ “Is it a crime to stand by one’s friends? Her hunger strike in jail is typical of her. She lias plenty of spirit.’’ The British consulate arc arranging for Gabrielle’s defence when she comes before the People’s Court. This deals with allegations of high treason and spying.