1948-03-13 — Page 7

hope and Trust, Mre Micowber, that nothing is about to Turn up which inexorable duty will compel me to turn down".

ایز

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1948.

HOUSE TORIES" RATHER FINKISH POLICIES

MICAWBER'S FAMILY CONFERENCE

(Copyright to All Countries)

SEFTONI get inside the

DELMER

SIVE

Madrid H.Q. of the SS

Escape Route

BECAUSE OF HIS mastery of European languages-ko can, for instance, Imitate the German accent when speaking French or Spanish- Softon Dolmar is able to talk his way into places closed to most roporters. Last week in Spain this language faculty enabled him to uncover a Nazl network smuggling Germans from Allied justice.

HE Nazi escape organi- sation for smuggling S.S. meni to Spain and from there to South America is working at full pres-

sure.

I know because a few days ago I managed to get into the headquarters of the Madrid branch of the organisation and see and hear for myself,

in

from

which of German

across

come

Bay of Biscay

PARIS

THERE ARE SPAIN

main routes the escapees jutton. The Arst is the

Afonastery Route MADRID £0 Rome

and

thence by air to Madrid. Second, With forged Thirs In D.P. trains to Genoa and thence by the sea-route to Barcelona, ...

MILES

Nearly Free Of Mines

-Except Three

Black Spots

BY BERNARD DREW RITAIN'S constline is nearly mine-free again,

By summer, holidaymakers should be able to wander around the const at will for the first time since 1939, except for three black spots.

German prisoners who took over mine clearance from British soppers hidyo freed some 20 arcas.

Or the 2,000 mincfickis sown with 350,000 mines nine remain.

These include the black spots, chief of which is t Mundesley (Norfolk), now offelally "a permanently

fenced area."

Here 1,000 land mines have become lost in a three- mile-long ledge, through the cliff being washed into the seo.

Experts cannot find a way to recover these mines. So with two small arens at Folkestone and Hastings (where hundreds of tons of refuse were tipped on to a minefield), Mundesley has been banned from public use for a lifetime.

Threb of the last six minefields now being cleared are in Dorset--at Worbarrow, Kimmeridge, and Swanage Bay, where the action of the water is washing the mines out to sea.

IN THE DUNES Biggest area is at Saunton Sands, near Barnstaple, (Devon), where 50 mines are embedded in sand dunes. To get at them, water is being pumped three. miles from a stream into high pressure water jets mounted on armoured tractors. The sand is washed away, and the mines detonated.

FRANCE

GERMANY

Barcelona

SWITZERLAND

GENOA

AUSTRIA

ITALY

EROME

To Argentine Mediterranean. SARDINIA

& S. America Sea

The other felds are on the York-

shire

coast, six miles south of Filev, und at Mablethorpe (Lines). In each place there are only about hat? dozen mines to be got out.

The "Mings all clear" signal is expected to flash to the War Ofea before the end of May,

At Weybourne (Norfolk)-the heaviest minefields were laid in East Angila-where 4,000 mines have just been cleared from a four-mile stretch, of bench,

14 armoured bulldozers were blown up during the work.

Some mines were located 2011. under and drifts.

PLANS WERE LOST

The last mire stronghold to go in Scotland was near Rattray Point..

"One of our main dificulties has been to locate minefields exactly," an officer told me.

"Many were laid in a hurry at the height of the invasion scare. Then unlts went oversens and plans were

last."

Freedom of the beaches has not been cheaply won. British casualty roll to date 15: Killed, *10 officers, 120 other ranks: wounded,

officers, 37 One

nine

life.

other

ranks

German.

lost 100,

his Described as "the keenest man on, the job," he ignored his British N.C.O.'s warning, returned to check a spot-and stepped on д minc.

Minesweeping in home waters also entering its anal phase,

When the 32nd Another S.S.-route leads through Flotilla puts out from Sheerness on Minesweeping the displaced persons camps of the April-1 to clear 200 square miles of American Zone. escapees are equipped with Spanish will be the last operation of its kind There the S. shallows in the Thames Estuary, it papers describing them as stragglers in British coastal waters. Funds, she said, came.

from Spain's "Blue. Division" or ag All moored mineßelds In the North German ond

Spanish workers. Spanish friends "repatriated"

Then they are Sen have been swept clear. Spain.

through Genon tu Spain.

LIVE 12 YEARS

with the..Buenos Alres branch of the escape organisation, which is also headed by a woman-Cissy von Schiller wife of the former German air attache in Madrid.

she

•

subject.

I-knew

from

Tip off.........----`-----

I had a talk there with the woman head-of-it. Clarita Stauffer, a German by birth, At the end of the war she was given special permission by the German Ambassador to become a Spaniard so that she might carry on this postwar work.

Officially the Madrid office is part of the Auxilio Social de la Falange Espanola (Social As- sistance Organisation of the Spanish Fuscist Party), and the And then Herr Vost led me Czechos building at No. 14, Galliego through the dining room-dark, German escape organisation had got restaurant-yes, the the restaurant growth, have gone to the sea bed.

room

him

1,000 STILL THERE

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TEL. 28273

Stamp Collecting Is Soviet Big Business

▼

He led me into his offles, was littered with iists prisoners who had escaped the Pyrences,

"Fraulein Stauffer," he said. "is ill because she works so terribly in hard. She's always on the go. travelling around, seeing people,

She denied that any escapees came Almost every week there are fresh getting the men out of the Spanish > to Spain from Germany. And reports of Nazis arriving in Spain.

But the menace to shipping lanes camps, getting them jobs, and get had said about the refugiados, she have prisons and out of the internment when I told her of what Herr Vost

may Inst till 1950-or even longer. In Spain itself many

Germans it has been found that the lie of ting them out of the country.

Kone "underground" to avoid German magnetic It's declared snappishly that Herr Vost repatriation to Germany and trial from planes may be 12 years.

mines dropperi very dificult," he sighed. "For was mistaken. She made it clear before the German Denazisleation tunately we have many good friends that

In addition, thousands of mines would not discuss the tribunals. important places."""

broke away from their moorings in "How

the North Sea and East Atlantic. many men are you looking after at the moment?" I asked.

How many are adrift today.Is any-! are the refugindos, who have

"More than 800, and, then there

body's guess. But scarcely

a day passes without radio warnings of self. They all come to us.

Germany to Spain-like your THIS

was a pity because I wanted even if the Spanish authorlites drifting mines being sent to ship-

Issue warrants for their arrest ping. ask

her it you

а about Herr that is only a formal gesture. For

When particularly want to seo Rohrbach

British sweepers went 0 Whinm I had met only Spain-qutie Fraulein Stauffer about?"

understandably-doés | clear one moored minefield, only one a few hours before. Herr Rohrbach not like the iden of handing brought out a visiting card in lnd passed

over mine was found where 200 had been troducing me as the Chief European

through the Stauffer its former allies to their enemies, laid. Reporter of the Daily Express. organisation. In fact hc gavo Aad someone always tips off the Britain, sowed some 200,000 moored But in the end I managed to con- escap

It was a bit of a shock for him. Galliego 14 as his Madrid address. Nazis before the police arrive. mines In the North Sea and Western

And Rohrbach is

is a Nazi who had There vince him that the senorita really escaped

is no lack of money

Approaches, tu

Germany 120,000. from Smolensk in Soviet

the ought to see me.

wheels of the escape;

Up to the present 7,000 have been Russia, had made his

way. through rease

machine.

In cleared. Czechoslovakia to Italy.

My second

The majority, corroded night Here

the Madrid I dined

at Horcher's and weighed down by marine Red Cross Passport

for 1 of Otto Horcher, who in Berlin used ticket for Madrid, where he Was told to report to Clarita Stauffer. Schacht, Ribbentrop, Goebbels, and

Enemy planes dropped 12,000 Now he was anxious to go to South Sometimes Hitler himself...

magnetic and.acoustic mines in homo- America, lie airendy had a visa from the Consul of the Dominican three in Europe today.

It is to my mind among the first waters, The Admiralty has swept |

6,543. More than 1.000 may still le ER face with its fanatical blue Repable. to work there as

bills are in accordance.

in Thames Estiary shallows. eyes, auburn hair, parted in the rofcatcher.

A naval officer told me: "Danger That, however, does not worry from acoustic mines is passed. But route with its Red the guests, most of them wealthy with the magnetic minc we have batteries, on which line to Like E, B. Bernard, Franco's German the

effectiveness

headed the German purchasing com- three as was first thought.”

Russian stamp catalogues even now mission in Spain. He has vast funds. It was a magnetle mine dropped lectors who want the bright-continue their prewar practice left and vast good will from by Nazi aircraft in, the Admiralty coloured stamps put out since quoting prices In terms of the up, the 1917 must be ready to pay feeling in the Kremlin these days Spaniards he has bribed.

American dollar. Anti-American ocean-going tug Orlaria, eff Bright- through the nose for them has not changed business considera- No, Clarita Stouffer need fear, no lingsea (Essex), in January with all They also must put up dollarsons. lack of money or official support.

on the line or black market equivalents for dollars in soft If a collector wants a series of, [say, four stamps with a face valuo money, countries like France.

of five roubles, he will have to pay. The Russian government has a twice or three times that much in monopoly on stamp sales to collec-dollars or the black market equiva-" tors both inside the country and out. lent in pounds, francs, or Hea. Inside Russia special government This monopolistle price control by stores provide philatelists with full purchasing commissions has bred a sets of the latest Lenin commemora big black market in Russian stamps. countries of Europe and in the New Rumania, Finland and other coun tiva issue, for example. In other Philatelie

dealers

in Bulgaris,

World it is the focal Soviet Pur-tries bordering the USSR.

havo chasing Commission that handles the bought up thousands of stamps at bargain prices. So have vilting diplomats and travellers.

Street, displays the red and where Clarita Stouter lay in refugees, a Spanish visa, and an air to do the big dinners for Goering, black shield of the Fascist or- bed under a black oak crucifix. ganisation. But. Inside it is all German,

A young, fair-haired man was

just going into the building

when I arrived.

I addressed him in

A

The_meeting-

middle, heavylsh, energetic chin-is - my

This Rome of the kind I always find it diMcult

Horcher's

•

BY ROBERT D. GRAFF

Stamp collecting in most countries may be an innocent hobby but so far as Soviet Russia is con- cerned it is a grim international business involving national honour and lots of money.

Selling Russian stampa to, For the Russians, selling stamps

is a sure-fire

heaviest and most Berlin-sound- to Alve an age. She might as well Cross passports is the latest channel Nazis. There are many in Madrid. found that the of the mine de- foreign collectors is a big busi.outside the US.S.R.. ing Spanish: "En que piso vive be in her late twenties

He smiled at me. "Sind sio woman heroine of a patriotic untielendly Spain and thence to South arms salesman, who during the war pends, may last eight to 12 years, not ness for Socialist Russia. Cal. way to get needed foreign currencies.

early forties. She looks the

la Señorita Stauffer?"

Deutscher?" he asked in Ger-

man.

I grinned back; “Na und obf"

I said which is the German slang equivalent of "What a question" or "You're asking sme!"

ns in her, used by the

Nazi esenpe

ground (and don't forget that this is precisely what we would call

her

America.

To reach Rome. they use the if she were helping British escapees "Monastery Route" being sent from on the run from the Nazis instead monastery to monastery in Germany, of Nazis on the run from the Allies). Austria, and Italy unill they get to She had an attack of pleurisy, she their Jumping-off point in Rome. telephone bell at her bedside from told me, But that did not keep the

ringing as we talked.

Main points of what she told me, are:-

1 The Spanish authorities, among

her.

This fits in with what had

believe, 1943, which blew

16 hands...

BY THE WAY by Beachcomber •

ly impossible, since only Government

We. Persions have 10kod

to

and

in Wretch Manor was

He laughed happily and led -me up the dingy stairs to n third-floor flat telling me on the way that Fraulein Stauffer was

I HAVE been deeply moved me any movement Ho yes.

by an account of an English fact, any movement towards univer- DESPECTFUL Sir, ill, and would probably not ha whom she has many friends, help man who played marbles in the sal peace through marbles la utler-R nble to see me.

They welcome her ald in weeding out

Communists from gutter with some Turkish officinis would be allowed to fly-tell you that our relativeship with "Well," I said, "I hope she among the prisoners who escape children in Chanak (Where Cecil about the world to the various con- the circus of Wugwell is of old can, because I very much want from Spain.

Rhodes was born).

ferences, whereas it is the ordinary friendship one. please, ho yes, to see her. I have just come

non-oficial

cowed our call people or what from Germany."

heard about hor organisation- The account was headed "Friend- and, bedraggled remnant of them is only a friendship one as well, not Which was true enough. I can prove that they are good Nazis, old Turkish Customs official",

that it helps only escapees who ship Through Marbles," because "an left, who should do the travelling. Was it of Business matter. Truth it job.

is that we did there play foe-saw on "In marmoribus tranquilitas," says had, been in Germany the week before visiting the civil intern- 2 That she had been able to find sold the game approached and Cicero in Book II. of the De Marmo- shelve of books, but we was homa Bald (through a mist of tears, I will ribus, and the words are as true.to- toors and for fun not money, and to ment camps, picking up there in Spain.

Jobs for many of the escapees warrant), "It is a pity that more day as when they were written in give pleasure to the warrior and his

that villa at Tusculum. nallons do not play marbles." what I could about the escupe

It used to be cricket that was go- organisation

That the majority of the escapees Ing to lead on the rosy dawn of in- Interlude

from France wanted to get back ternational world brotherhood, but a to Germany. But there was a sub-row between the Siberian Wanderers stantial number, all the same, who and the Trieste C.C. caused disilin for one reason and another wanted signment. themigrate to South America.

''

Getting In

who

to know that Cecil Itholes was born

at Bishop's Stortford...

Indy. We are not of the 12 dwarf men, who to us was lowclass bondita from gutters. *..

We are, bo yes,

The Filthistan Trio..

* ?

Smugglers Swept

Off Their Feet

of

The dealers or the diplomats' sell |tho stamps to Western: European, or American experts, who in turn 'ad- vertise the latest series for salo, to collectors. But as a collector, 'you. Three smugglers loaded down with pay even for that back-alley route. contraband tried to cross a mountain stream, marking the Swiss-Italian Stamp dealers in Paris say it is. border near Lugano recently, but Russla's commercial approach to. wero awent off their fest by the stamp, issues that makes them ex- rushing torrent,

pensive. Tho

claim the 1 dealers Soviet Government prints stamp. Their cries for help were heard by not for latters but for collectors. For a:Bwin Customs patrol, which saved oxample, dealers," say, therù, have them from drowning with some been 12 separate commemorative dimcuitythen took them to gaol, Issues for Lenin in the past 30 years. The little round wickerwork hat.reports Associated Press.

➡United Press.

Prednosa: It might Interest you Stop-gap

When I find that invention le flag-

ving, One subject will always come

pat; I can always find room for the

than In-

Myself: You arò confusing the founder of Rhodesia with the Cecil

any. Rhodes. The latter. com-Chanak..

THE young man was impressed. She had been helping to get them Cicero knew it

And so was Herr Vost, an elderly, there by her special means. rather shrivelled-looking man in This again fits in with my in-UE trouble with the world is that Rhodes who founded the island of spectacles, who told me that he formation that the Stauffer organiza- -was: Clarita's secretary.

you will never persuado tion works in close collaboration | Government, of whatever

was born at