TREK TO FREEDOM

Hokitika Guardian, 26 May 1933, Page 8

TREK TO FREEDOM

i,.i 209 MILES IN DESERT ESCAPE FROM FOREIGN LEGION ’t ‘Another,,dgring escape from- the'Ffbiioh Foreign Legion lias been made b\ ; aiv^lngii,simian, the man who figured iii thet- latest escapade being Stanley Freclei’iek .Rail, of Hampstend, London. Ball, who. joined the Legion last year, was stationed at Sidi-bel-Abbas. On December 17 he escaped after knocking down ; a German corporal in a quarrel After walking ,200 miles through the ddsert, assisted by friendly Arabs, lie reached tlffi Franco-Spa uish frontier near Melilla. The Spanish police arranged for bis embarkation for Malaga, Spain; where ,tile British Consul helped to arrange his passage to Gibraltar, escaped Legionaire Donald Mas Donald of Glasgow. Ball declared that he made his dasli from the Legion owing to the very rough treatment meted out by the N.C.O.’s mostly Germans, and to the food, which he described as very bad. Ball’s parents were overjoyed at their soil’s escape. “Stanley had been .employed- as - an audit clerk, but had lost his ’iob, and became very restless in his enforced idleness,” Mrs Ball stat” ,ed! “He can speak fluent French, and last October he went to Dunkirk to.try' to find work .there. We laughed at him when he said he would join the Foreign Legion if he failed; We were amazed when we heard that he had carried out his threat. We lulVe been dbing our utmost to get him out, but without success.” :