POLICEMAN’S DENIAL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 663, 16 October 1933, Page 5

POLICEMAN’S DENIAL

REBUFF FOR PROSECUTION Leipzig, October 13. The prosecution suffcred a rehuff when the arresting policeman denied that he fourid a Communist membership card or a proclamation card when he searehed Van der Lubbe. The prosecutor insisted that a proclamation was found but the constable was unshaken in his testimony. Prosecution Shaken Wendt, a night porter, further shook the prosecution's case hy supporting Torgler's (Communist deputy) alihi by giving evidence that he telephoned the Comntunist party at 8.20 p.m. at the request of Torgler, who with Koenen and Fraulein Reythme left the building at 8.35, without hurry. They certainly gave no im-

pression of fleeing which had hten one of the prosecution's allegations. Wendt then related a surprising story to the effect that an un-named deputy who left the 5 Reichstag at 10 p.m. when the fire was at its height, showed a deputy's card. He returned a quarter of an hour later to get something he had forgotten. Wendt refused him adniission and referred him to a policeman. Wendt added that the deputy, (whose narne no one in the court inquired about) had not entered earlier hy his door. Inspector's Evidence Alexander Scranowitz, the house inspector of the Reichstag, in giving evidence denied that he sent his staff home 'as early as the Communists alleged. He added- that when he entered the burning Reichstag he stamped out the smouldering carpets. He visitcd the hurning restaurant, went to the session chamher where the curtains were hlazing, and flames were emerging from the reporters' box. Forty small fires similar in shape and size were hurning on various parts of the floor, leading Scranowitz later to declare his conviction. that one person could not have caused such a fire in the tinie a.vailable. Scranowitz denied being a Nazi. He said the Reichstag staff had not been changed before the fire and added he found a hurning torch which was interesting in view of the fact that Van de Lubbe, in his confession, referred only to firelighters.