Fate Of Englishmen On Plane Flight

Chronicle (Levin), 1 December 1948, Page 5

Fate Of Englishmen On Plane Flight

Received Tuesdav, 7 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 30. The British Ambassador in Belgrade, Sir Charles Poaka, has asked Ihe Yngoslav Foreign Oiiice about the fate of four Engiishmen wlio were the passengers and crew of a privatelv owned British plane which (iisappeared on a flight from Britain to Australia after taking olf from Croydon on Oetober 29. The Daily Mail's Belgrade corre.spondciit say.s the four men are reported to be alivc and well in Yugoslavia. The corrcspondent says Zionists sei/.ed the ])lane for use in lkilestine and are said to be holding the men for ransom. The oeeupants of the plane, which was a ten-seater Eodestar, were two engineers of the Dowsett Construction Engineering Company of Richmond, Surrey — -Mr. R. E. Morris and an exBaltle of Britain pilot, Hquadron Eeadcr Wellmon. The pilot was Captain Thornton Jlall with Mr. J. Ash as navigator. The passengers were being flown to New iSoutli Wales to start a new sur face mining venture. Eive others were to have joined tlie plane at lioine but it never got there. The Eoreign Office received reports that the plane had crashed at Fjubljana, Yugoslavia. Following the appearnnce in Italian, Frencli and Bwiss newspapers of an adyertisement inserted by th(i owners oi the plane, R. A. Brand and Company," Ihe company received a telephoue eall from Benio to say t'hev could not have the plane bftck and that the iirm's eniployees wero prisoners. Mr. Geoffrey Welch, an executive of R. A. Brand and Company, has fioUn to Alilan in an effort to coiitact the originator of the telephone eall wlio is kuown in the .dilan underworld as a "super spiv" •uid if necessary pav the £1250 ransom demanded. ilowever, following the abandonment of the conditions of secrecy which this nian laid down, he has .Iisappeared. Bran.l and Company are now pinning all their liopes on the Foreign Ottice and Secret Bervice to get the plane and inen baek.