FRENCH LEGION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 October 1938, Page 2

FRENCH LEGION

“WORSE THAN ANY PRISON” I ESCAPEE’S STORY. FAKED PASSPORT USED. • How a Londoner escaped from the French Foreign Legion by walking out “under their very noses” was told to a newspaper representative by the man who did it —Harold Henry Longley; now an advertising representative in Sydenham, a suburb of London. Earlier in the day Longley had admitted at Croydon Police Court that he owed his wife £240 under’ an order to maintain her and their two children. Longley had told the magistrates tjrat he ran away and joined the Foreign Legion when in dire financial straits, but escaped after 18 months, finding the Legion “worse than any prison possibly could be.” The Bench decided to remit £215 of the arrears on the order, which was made in 1930, and ordered Longley to pay £25 forthwith or go to prison for three months. Longley, who stated he could not pay, was led to the cells, but an hour later the money was paid, and he was released. “I planned for months before I got away from the Legion,” Longley told the “News of the World” later. “One night I was due to mount guard at Sidi-bel-Abbas, but instead I walked out. “The pockets of my great-coat were bulging with personal belongs, and I felt terribly conspicuous as I saluted the sergeant of the guard on the way out. “Within a few minutes, I was in the house of a civilian friend, where I found everything ready to transform me into an American tourist. “I was provided with a faked passport bought from an old rogue in Oran for 1000 francs and a heavily labelled suitcase. “At the station, under the eyes of a picket whose duty it was to prevent escapes, I bought a return ticket to Oran. “When I got into the dining car of the train, a lieutenant of the Legion came in. He was not of my company, but I knew him. To divert his suspicions, I had to talk to him, but he stuck to me like a leech. When we got to Oran, he insisted on taking me round his favourite haunts. “I waited six days in Oran, a garrison town, for the arrival of a British ship, and then found the captain to be a strict disciplinarian who would neither take me as a passenger nor sign me on as a member of the crew. “There was nothing to do but go on to Algiers. There, on the first day, I found a kindly captain who agreed to sign me on as a fireman and take me home. CAPTAIN’S UNIFORM. “After two or three days on the ship, I badly wanted to go ashore. ‘lf you are foolish enough to do so, then wear one of my uniforms,’ said the captain. So ashore I went in a brand new uniform. , “I was just thinking of returning to the ship when a Legion sergeant came into a bar where I was having a drink. He was selling tickets for a concert to be given by the Legion Band from Sidi-bel-Abbas! “Acting on impulse, I bought a ticket. I went to the concert. To my dismay I found my seat was next to that of the lieutenant I met in the train to Oran. “By this time, of course, I had been posted as a deserter, and I never spent such an uncomfortable and fearful hour as that up to the first interval, when I left and returned to the ship. “I never set foot in Algiers again, and two days later we sailed. “Eventually I landed back in Cardiff, after 18 months of hell. None of the people who have written about the Legion know the real truth from the men’s side. “I hope to let people know what life is like for the rank and file in a book I have just completed.”