CO129-438 - Public Offices - 1916 — Page 429

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,

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