CLOSELY GUARDED

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 90, 10 January 1935, Page 9

CLOSELY GUARDED

Saar Commission Chairman

THREATENING LETTERS _ \ Saarbnicken. January 8. Mr. G. G. Knox, Chairman of the Saar Governing' Commission, is Europe’s most closely-guarded man. He is not left unprotected for a minute, and lias a personal bodyguard even when eating and sleeping. He is virtually his own prisoner, and rarely leaves the Schloss. Armed detectives accompany him when he leaves the Schloss, which hitherto has been a quiet building In Saarbrucken Castle, a backwater of the city,'but is now as impenetrable ns any remote castle. A hundred hidden guns, squads of soldiers and police, and an ingenious system of electric alarm bells make it a fortress of maximum security. Forty Czechoslovakian troops are always ready, and have a special entrance from their barracks to the Schloss. _ Mr. Knox receives a huge daily postbag, often with violently threateneing letters from all parts of the world. POLLING INCIDENTS Hitlerites Disqualified REFUSAL BY PRISONERS (Received January 9, 7 45 p.m.) i Saarbruck.eli. January 8. Five men entering a polling booth at Beckingen gave tlie Hitler salute, which resulted in their immediate disqualification. An aged woman, an inmate of a hospital, who said, "I was born a German and I want to die a German,” was also disqualified on the ground that she indicated that she voted for the transfer to Germany. Tlie Deutsche Front lias protested to the Plebiscite Commission against the disqualifications, hut, fearing to lose many votes, is vigorously impressing on the Nazis that they must not salute or shout “Heil. Hitler!” while in polling stations The habit is most difficult to suppress, as such greetings are automatic with thousands who voted from Germany. Prisoners in Nennkb'chen gaol struck against the plebiscite, refusing to vote unless liberated on January 12. The authorities demurred, whereupon 17 of 42 prisoners withheld their votes.