CENSOR EVADED

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21202, 27 August 1940, Page 7

CENSOR EVADED

REFUGEE OFFENDS

SYMPATHETIC TREATMENT Cfl MOTHER LIVING IN VIENNA (By Telegraph.—Special to Times) NEW PLYMOUTH, Monday Because he sent letters to his sister in London otherwise than through the Post Office, Kurt Freundlich, a young Austrian, was charged with a breach of the censorship regulations in the New Plymouth Police Court to-day. “I sent the letters,” he said in halting English, “but I think I am not guilty.” He was convicted and discharged without penalty. “You have broken the law, but 1 believe your statement, as the detectives do,” said Mr W. H. Woodward, S.M. “I would not like you to think that in this country a person is punished for offences he never intended to commit.”

Employed at engineering works at | New Plymouth for the last 12 j months, Freundlich, a refugee from ' Austria, got to know Albert May, a j fellow-worker, now employed as an j engineer on a ship trading between I England and New Zealand. May re- i visted the works and on being asked j agreed to take a letter to Freundlich’s sister in London. Message Through Sister Because of the war Freundlich had had difficulty in communicating with his mother in Vienna. The Red Cross Society had told him there was not much hope, but having learned from his sister that she had been able to send letters of not more than 25 words he thought this was an excellent opportunity to enclose a letter for his mother for forwarding. Defendant fold Detective-Sergeant E. C. Jarrold he thought it would cheer his mother if she received a few lines from him in his own handwriting, but he would not have done it if he had thought there would be any trouble. “I have had a good deal to do with him in connection with the alien regulations and I have always found him truthful,” Mr Jarrold said. “He has always complied with every regulation up to the present. He is described as a good worker. He has been perfectly frank and answered questions without any hesitation whatever.” Spoke Against Hitler Freundlich is 29 years old and has a wife and two children with him at New Plymouth. It was the German invasion of Austria that forced him to leave Austria. He was in the Austrian Army, he told the magistrate, but when Hitler came he lost his job and had to leave the country. His few savings were confiscated by the Gestapo and he went to Shanghai before coming to New Zealand more than a year ago. Mr Jarrold said he believed what Freundlich said. “He told me what happened during the election at Vienna,” the detective added. “A hairdresser friend of his had said something against Hitler. He disappeared, Freundlich had said something against Hitler, too, so he thought it was time he made his departure.”