UNFOUNDED CHARGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 June 1939, Page 5

UNFOUNDED CHARGE

MADE BY THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT AGAINST BRITISH OFFICIAL. NO SUBSTANTIATION ATTEMPTED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. June 21. The Government has received a request from the German Government for the withdrawal from the post of Consul General at Vienna, of Mr D. StClair Gainer, who before last March was Consul-General in Munich. The grounds for the request are an allegation that Mr Gainer incurred responsi ■ bilities in a case —of which no particulars relating to legal proceedings are given—of transmission of illegal information. The request will, of course. be complied with, but it is stated in official circles that the German Government made no effort to substantiate the charge, which the Foreign Office is satisfied is entirely without foundation. It is difficult to escape the impression that the request has been made solely in retaliation for the action of the British Government in asking Berlin for the recall of Herr Reinhardt. This case was mentioned in the House of Commons today at question time, when Mr Chamberlain staled that the German Government, while not admitting that Herr Reinhardt had any connection with the case, had made arrangements for his with drawal.

The recall of the German Consul. Herr Reinhardt was for alleged complicity in the theft of plans of an ord ■ nance factory by a bricklayer named Kelly. The case against Kelly was tried publicly.