COPY
Central Registry
From :-
The General Officer Command,
TO :-
sir,
the China Command,
The Secretary,
War Office, London, S..
China
10 FEB.1916.
No.4677/58.
C. O
423
REC
22612
REG 13 MAY 16
Hong Kong. 10th February 1916,
I have the honour to forward the enclosed petition signed by
residents at Tientsin for the release of one Max A. Lorenzen, a prisoner
of war recently interned here and now interned in Australia together with
the remainder of the prisoners of war from Hong Kong.
Lorenzen was brought to Hong Kong from Tsingtau in February
1915, having been handed over by the Japenese authorities after being
taken prisoner by them on the surrender of Tsingtau, where he served as a
marine in the 3rd sea Battalion.
In connection with the recent attempt to escape made by the
prisoners of war here by means of a tunnel, Lorenzen one morning absented himself from roll call owing to slight sprain of ankle. He handed the non-
commissioned officer, who went to see that he was in bed, a slip of paper giving a warning that an attempt to escape was being made.
The Assistant Provost Marshal, through whose office his letters
have passed for censorship, states they have been intensely anti-German in
sentiment and that he was regarded with suspicion by the other prisoners of
war and not admitted to any of their confidences.
I have the honour to be,
sir,
Your obedient Servant,
(sd.) F. VENTRIS, Major General.
Commanding the china Command,
1