1956-02-11 — Page 6

(Page 6)

14

( THE CHINA MAIL; SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1956.

TWENTIETH CENTURY TREASON TRIALS

THE KNIGHT CHANGED

Ο

HIS ALLEGIANCE

By Nigel Gee

natives of Kerry, for at had handed it over to the 4.80 the same morning a police. On it was written a domestic

code, elaborately conceived to cover a number of con- tingencies not usually asso- ciated with students of the

servant, Mary Gorman, saw three strange men passing the gate of her employer's house. They were in some hurry.

saints.

N Good Friday morning, April 21, 1916, a farmer, one John M'Carthy. left the warmth of his bed to walk along the shore where the Atlantic makes Its eastern landfall on the coast of the ancient Irish Kingdom of Kerry. It was dark al it had been a wild and stormy night. He was on his way to visit a woll.

Later that afternoon It was no ordinary well. sergeant and a constable of The old people had told the police came upon a man ARMS SHIP SINKS him it was a holy well. As hiding in M'Kenna's Fort, a this was

Good Friday, he place which the sergeant had elected to go there to variously described 出感 perform his devotions. his way back he saw a bout and four cars floating in the to be Richard Morton water. He retrieved the Denham, Buckinghamshire. oars, but the weight of the following the profession of boat was so great that he author. could not move it.

Literary gentlemen have strange ways, but hiding in ruins did not strike the ser-

"I AM AN AUTHOR"

beillon, now assumed B logical sequence.

Sir Roger Casement was born in Ireland, but most of his adult life before his arrest had been spent in the service of England. His father had been an officer in the army,

STARTING

TODAY:

A NEW

SATURDAY

FEATURE

The

A

KILLER STILL ~AT_LARGE!

CHILD FOUND DEAD

H

ON THE STEPS

struck 2 p.m. An early dusk holouch Street.

had already begun to veil the drab streets that spraw across the northern heights of Glasgow. It was Friday, October 10, 1952.

wee missing. now

ALF an hour earlier Rosy-cheeked and laughing and reported that their daughter

the big clock of the Betty Alexander, in her

tartan kilt and smart town The police chiefs lost no time. Roman Catholic hos socks, had had her tea that day All that night squads of detec tel on the hill had in the kitchen of her tenement tives, uniformed policemen and on the first floor of 48, policewomen, hurriedly recalled From

Icave,

combed the area. Alexander's Eager to join her friends in Betty

description the cobbled streets that are the was doobed to every polico playing fields of Garnethill she station in the city. had pattered down the chipped Next day the search expanded, stone stairway that winds dark- The crowded streets of Garnet. ly towards the roof.

hill became alive with rumour, Into

of the meanest gossip and conjecture,

It was Mrs Hunter's shocked streets of that city she ran un-

her mur- poream on the dispensary steps knowingly to meet deror.

that gave the whispered word By seven o'clock she had not "murder" its first official status.

In the

of returned.

streets

Burly white-haired Chief Supt. Gilbert Mellwrick, head of the

bloody and costly fighting the Dublin rebellion was quelled.

The trini of Sir Rogor Casement for high treason be

on June 28, 1910 in the an

Court, London. High evidence against him was over- whelming, and the prosecution was materially assisted by the of the and he him- singular indifference

In the Dispensary Germans towards his fate. For in an exchange of

in Weat prisoners Children they had allowed many of those Street, buxom, motherly Me whom he had tried unsuccess- Agnes Humter, the cleaner, threw ecart over her head return 10 a dotted fully to

the Britain. The sum of their testi- before going out to shake mony was enough to hang him. mats.

self had been in the Con- sular Service of the Foreign Office in Africa and South America. Indeed, Casement had been so devoted a ser vant of the Crown that in 1911 a knighthood had been conferred upon him.

Casement had accepted

acctuce to

DEFENCE PLEA FAILS

the defence, which relied on

for Sick Graham

She unlocked the door leading to the short flight of stone steps that dropped into the courtyard at the back of the building and

On the top step she stopped

An MEANWHILE It had also On "Irish" or "Danish" ruin. been an eventful night

The man declared himself elsewhere off the coast of this honour with a gratitude No witnesses were called for stepped into the rain.

of Ireland. A sloop of the and humility which seemed an attempt to quash the indict-suddenly and stared in amaze-

Royal Navy, HMS Bluebell, a little too fulsome to be ment on the ground that it dis- ment. had sighted and challenged true, but there was never closed no offence known to the

At her feet on the concreto law and trinble by that court. ship, the Aud, which was any свине to doubt

blacks a small child lay up- his

It was argued that under the

The rain had under Norwegian loyalty. And whatever feel- statute.

the In-parently asleep. which under sailing colours. The Aud was order- ings he

have felt dictment was laid, the offence matted damply the tousled head of light brown hair. Spots of it be ireason must committed ed to follow the Bluebell to against Britain, they did not within the realm and NOT listened on the white skin.

198 miles prevent him from drawing ekewhere.

The girl's head was pillowed The court, however, Queenstown,,

her carefully folded brown a substantial pension when refused the motion to distant.

quash. he was invalided from the and the Court of Appeal sub- overcoat. Her knees were drawn up. her eyes closed. She had service in 1913.

sequently upheld this decision.

the lonely, pathetic stillness of a broken doll.

LATER, with the assist geant as one which fulfilled

ance

the

foot-

even accepted eccentricities of the profession. He asked the name of a book the man might have written. He was told the works included life of St Brendon, a reply which, unless the sergeant unusually versed in ecclesiastical history, must

WAR

have been inconclusive,

WET TROUSER LECS

Three miles from Queens harbour, the town

Aud

were

tirement

muy

A stopped and there was un THE IRISH BRIGADE

Twe explosion on board. German naval ensigns were then observed at her mast YET very holy after his re-

and the crew

e had embarked head, taking to their boats. The up course of action so hostile to his tale employers that it could Aud sank. Her crew were only be construed as high trea- found to be German naval son

A sudden and violent personnel, and her cargo, assumed, yet it convert be

of allegiance

must be divers later discovered, consisted of arms.

wet Morton

of his neigh- bour, Pat Driscoll, he was able to secure boa! on dry linkl.

They made some puzzling dis- coveries. There was 13 dagger in the boat, and Band partly burned in the was a tin box, tied round with cord. The box was not his; he did not open it. For some twenty yards, leading in the direction of his house were three pairs of prints.

As he followed this trail, M'Carthy came

upon his eight-year-old daughter. She was playing with three re- volvers, and nearby was a small black satchel. He dis- armed his child and sent his neighbour to report their discovery at the police On the way to the station station.

between the man tried to drop some Early rising evi. paper unobserved, but

WAR dently the habit

of the small boy and seen him and

change

plained.

It is supposed that his service cllnes affected nol

if

MR Morton failed to satisfy the sergeant in other replies, and observing that his trouser legs were

Wux brought in oreign and his boots were covered hastily to London, where for only his health, but his reusi as well. That is hard to believe, with sand, the sergeant the first time he

revealed for this speech

at his trial, took him

the highly the police his true identity to

rhetorical,

well- was and charged him authorities. He

Sir composed and articulate. Indeed, station with being concerned with Roger Casernent. Almost to plea of insanity was entered

his behalf. the landing of arms on the immediately afterwards,

His open rebellion broke out in coast of Ireland.

Dublin. The chain of events

to

Reliability...

Was

the landing of Morton, the interception of the arma cargo and the re-

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movements before

outbreak of war are uncertain, but Soun afterwards he arrived, vin Scandinavia, Germany where he was not only an bordured

guest, but was at iberty to travel where be chose.

also

of

The

jury found him guilty, and before sentence was passed

himself Casement availed.

of

and

The court heard him patiently, when he had inished, he

and was sentenced to death. On the

on

looked ngain. horror.

In

Fun

סלופ

Story By VALENTINE

Garnethill 1: wis dark chilly.

charge

Glasgow CI.D.,

of

took

the investigation, assisted by Supt. Alexander Muaro and Chief Det-Inspector Smith Liddle.

They had to to work No description of the murderer. No Axed me for Betty Alexan- der's

death. No clue is to where or how she died. That is why Belly's murderer is still at large today, perhaps walking the streets of Garnethill, and haps reading these words.

Professor John Glaister. Inmous Scottish pathologist, per- front formed the postmortem.

In the spotlessly clean room of Betty's home, stocky Jack Alexander grey-haired Fuiled on his overcoat and with his wife Barbara went out to search for their daughter.

A little girl fold them that sho had soch Betty

LLine some earlier but that she had sud- denly disappeared.

per-

the

He estimated that when she was found Betty bad been dead for 00 hours. Her clothing was form and bloodstained. She had his last right to speak. He made he which

been assaulted, and strangled. a long speech in

the She had been lying on denied the competence of the

Mrs Hunter Her eyes

rounded

dispensary stops only a few Court to try him under a statute

hours before she was discovered. ground The mats dropped from her of Edward II, on the that this king. though he ruled hands.

The stonework underneath her und She turned England

body was bone dry. France. was not screaming

into the dispensary. king of Ireland.

Sometimes $11 the freezing The silent queue of mothers That night, Tuesday, Octo--

before the on their ailing children gazed ber 7, there was the comradeship hours of darkness

dawn of October 10, her mur- wor wonderingly 05 she stumbled of despair in Garnethill. past them towards the medical

dever, carrying the tiny body in Betty's

grand- 74-year-old officer's surgery,

That was the parents, neighbours in the same his arms, had climbed the rea opening

to the biggest Buccleuch Street tenement, left Buccleuch Lane and laid it

brick wall

backs onto Scene murder hunt the Scottish city their resides to join the search the dispensary steps.

Child playmates of the mise

their accompanied

crime they

acoured the murder hunt in Scottish

annals went on. More than 120 streets. One

by detectives and uniformed pollca little groups

A worked tirelessly round the their homes. Dis-

clock.

Time and again police dogs were brought to bark and snift about the alleys and courtyards that to behind Buccleuch Street. But the scent was cold.

day after his condemnation his name was formally erased from [- register of hla order Ji knighthood

CAME FOR THE RIDE

09

10-

has ever known.

[L ended too the three-day ing girl search by pollee and residents parents of Garnethill for brown-eyed darkened four-year-old Betty Alexander, one who had been missing from her turned

in nearby Buccleuch traught, weary, and dispirited, Mr and Mrs Alexander walked home Street since tea time

to the Northern police stution

the THERE remains only the fate

of his two companions in Tuesday. his landing in Ireland. One of these, a former prisoner of war named Balley, was brought to London with Casement and tried for treason. He declared that his sole intention in joining the Irish Brigade wils to gel betler conditions for

hlmselt In Germany he set about re-

before he could return to cruiting nong the prisoners- land to fight for the King. The of-war, just as John Anery was court accepted his plea that he to do with even less success had only come along in the

The irish

next

war,

prawners were sifted from their

various comps, and assembled ut Lamburg. There he attempted to ruise his Irish Brigade.

CHANGE OF PLAN

Ire-

submarine for the ride and he was acquitted.

The third man is a somewhat mysterious charecter. His iden- tity was given as Captain Mon- telth. He is supposed to have been deported from Ireland In activities, 1914 for subversive and his ultimate

un-

he Whe travelling

fale It supposed that TUOSE who joined the brigade, known.

Casement said, would be either be fled to America ог taken from the camp and sent to that he was drowned the day

when Berlin as gusta of the German be Jandod,

the car in government. In the event of a which Gorman

sea victory, he would crashed into the sea.

(COPYRIGHT) Land the brigade in Ireland to country against the If the enemy, England.

war should 20 against Germany. or the German govern- either be ment would give the brigade's members a small bonus with a free passage to America.

defend that cour

Despite the inducements and the converse reprisals which prisoners sald the Citumane exacted against those who did not join, he recruited only 52 volunteers. In most cases, be received a hostile reception, and on one occasion had to fight a reanguard action out of the camp with his umbrella.

man

not

Clearly this would bo A ditary forco of nb con- sequence, and plena had to be tailored to match the size of the resources, any case the Ger-

victory had materialised, so any large scale expedition was out of the quee Lion The best that Casement could offer his sympathisers in Dublin was his landing with two fellow brigade memberg and the consignment of weapons,

He embarked from Wilhelms- haven in a submarine on his hopeless enterprise. He was ar- realed the day after he landed, the arms went to the bottom of the sea, and after some

Noxt Saturday: Hanged By A Passport

|POCKET CARTOON | by OSBERT LANCASTER

** Bicentenary or no bl centenary, Ma says she's had Mozart and do you want her, to come out and tell you what you can do with your magic flute?"

MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN

CLAY CAMEL IS

| WONDER #--THE

ONE OF THE

REPORTERS--OR

WHO KNOWS WICH MANDRAKE

THAT BUTLER... \WERE HERE,

PRINCESS NARDA IS HERE TO MAKE THE PRESENTATION, EXCELLENCY.

MBASSA

THANK YOU HOPE SHE DOESN'T RECOGNIZE

MEJ

on

tho

the

to

that

on

For six weeks the biggest

WELL, WHAT D'YOU KNOW! taking search for someone who

LIGHTNING DOES

QUEER THINGS

of

N every second of time, at least 100 flashes

Often, they bring death and lightning occur. destruction.

It is said that men are much safer than animals in a thunderstorm, and there is good reason for the belief. Animals rarely survive when struck, and their habit of huddling together increases the death-roll,

In 1882, at Wurttemburg, Southern Germany, 218 shoep out of a flock of 288 were struck by lightning. In 1884, at Limoges, in France, 42 cows, chained together, all met sudden death:

Then again, in 1900, a herd et 150 pigs suffered a simlar fate at La Salvetat, France. But their keepers were unhurt A woman feeding 12 hens also escaped injury when lightning destroyed all the birds.

"ODD" STORIES

10

on

For days detectives went from house to house in a slow, paina-

might have seen or heard some- thing that would lead them the killer. They knocked every door, In every tenement, in every streel in Garnethill.

They questioned, it is estima- ted, every man and woman in the district. More than 3,000 of them, Who knows, perhaps among those thousands the tired detectives unknowingly inter- viewed the murderer, who shrugged his shoulders blandly and murmurd: "Sorry, can't help

If he did he must surely smile as he reads these words. Mellwrick Then Chief Supt. decided on a mass fingerprinting in Garnethill. of every mole Detectives went from house to house with ink-sodden pads and crisp white paper. No one re- fused. More than 1,000 sets fingerprints were taken.

you...

of

They were compared with smudged prints taken from the

SOME of the oddest Hghtning stories for cash, in 1911bers door of the dispensary and from

When 20 cows were in the line of one flash, in 1901, every the stone steps where Betty was other animal was spared, only the odd numbers perishing.

found. Nothing tallied

Buccleuch

An exactly similar effect was produced by the rare "globe" In an unoccupied flat behind form of lightning in 1886. It entered some stables and killed the

Street detectives first and third of four bullocks. Astonishingly, the ball of fire found evidence of recent docu- struck the ground at the feet of a young farmer without hurting

pation. Was the unknown him. Then it entered the harmhouse, bypassed nine people and occupant a tramp who had crept Ignited some matches on the mantelpiece.

secretly in for shelter?

Lightning certainly does same queer things. But a lot of Or was it the murderer who bellers we have about it are quite unfounded. For example, it

had dragged in a frightened really can strike in the same placą twice. Philadelphians keep

child, assaulted and murdered a careful record of the number of tlines the William Penn statuo on their City Hall is struck.

PHOTO FINISH?

hert

of

That, in any event, is the only theory that remains at the end all the long abortive, probing. That Betty Alexander COME people believe that a kind of "photo-imago" of the troo

killer to Bozna Is left on a person who is struck underneath one. But experts taken by her

where the accident secret place and strangled to: say a tree-like scorch results no matter

death. In the darkness, in the happens.

Other people you've probably heard them-aay sheat cold, and within the sound of lightning is not so dangerous as the forked variety. They've her playmates' voles na they talking nonsense, yet they are right in a way, "Shoot" lightning called ber from the street. is simply the reflection on clouds of distant flashes of fork lightning. In fact, all lightning in "forked."

Finally, let's give the killer is due. Lightning also helps to keep us alive. Every year, lightning produces a million tons of nitrogen compounde, which fertlilse the soil in which we grow our food.

So you might say there's a bit of flash in every pant

UPSTAIRS

THE CLAY CAMEL--

(COPYRIGHT).

........

·By Les Falk and Phil Davis

NARDA WILL PRESENT THE JEWELS TO ME** THINKING I'M **YOU!!

THE CLAY CAMEL ALWAYS WING! MANDRAKE LE POP WHEN HE HEART ABOUT

THIS

(COPYRIGHT)

NEXT WEEK: The Club Hostess Who.... Was Murdered Becauso A Man War____ Jesious.

TALK

ABOUT

MAGIC!

Have you sear

Admiral