PERMITTED TO LEAVE.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 February 1916, Page 7

PERMITTED TO LEAVE.

, GERMAN WOMAN GIVES PASSPORT I FROM DOMINION. .. j L "'"" _ 4 "J ANTI-GERMAN LEAGUE ASKS J, QUESTIONS, -i It was recently stated publicly (says tho New Zealand Times), that a German ' woman wlio has two brothers in America had been supplied with %pa»sport Vid allowed to leave for America. 11 TT]is • matter lias been the subject of inquiry by tho Women's Anti-German League, 1 and corespondencc wliieh has passed be- 1 tween tho league nnd tho military authorities on the subject Jios been handed to lis for publication. Wo append the letters hereto.

The first letter was from the league to Colonel Whlion, Chief of the General Staff, dated January 22nd, as fol- ! lows:—''Could you give the league any '< information as to when Martha Grosao' left tho Dominion and by whom assisted, she being an unnaturilised Gorman subject? She having lived in the House of Dr. Christie for two years, he should be able to supply the necessary informa- j tion. We look on this as an important [mutter, juid would bo obliged if you would reply to this at once.—(Signed) E. J. Moore, lion, secretary." ' To this Colonel Gibbon replied on January 24th:—"I have to inform you that Miss Martha Grosse was, under the powers granted to the Hon. Minister for Defence by the war regulations, given a permit to leave the Dominion." In reference to this reply, tho league has been advised that the war regula—tions give no power whatever to the Minister for Defence to permit an unmituralised alien to leave the Dominion. Since that letter was received the league's secretary has sent tho following to Colonel Gibbon: "I beg to ac'ci.nwled«e the receipt'of your letter, for which I thank you, and would further deem it a favor if you would supply tho date of the departure of Martha (Jrosse. Also the date of the permit granted by Mr. Allen, Defence Minister, and the boat she left in" (

No reply to this letter naa yet been received by the league. ( (From Our Own Correspondent.) i Wellington, Feb. S. The facts that are being disclosed with regard to the departure of Maltha, Grosse from New Zealand are perplexing. Miss Grosse, who is quite a young woman, is a German whose Bympathief, naturally, are with her own country in the present war. She made iio secret of that fact. If New Maud has any military secrets that are worth preserv- j irig, why was this woman given a permit to leave the country for America bv the Defence Department? If the military- secrets do not matter, why are the newspapers prohibited from publishing information on various matters connected more or less intimately with the Forces? Probably the truth is that a generous impulse rather outran discretion when the authorities were dealing with the case o£ Miss Martha Grosse.