TRAITOR SENTENCED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 September 1939, Page 6

TRAITOR SENTENCED

INFORMATION SENT TO GERMANY “WORSE THAN A MURDERER/’ By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day, 12.5 p.m.) LONDON, September 25. Donald Adams pleaded guilty io eighteen counts of forwarding information to Germany. Mr Justice Oliver, at the Old Bailey, in passing a sentence of seven years' imprisonment with hard labour, said: “I, last week, was trying people for murder. I do not know if a man like you is not worse than any of these murderers because you took part for pay in murdering your countrymen —if you could.”

Donald Adams, aged 56, described as a racing journalist, was charged on July 14 with recording information relating to his Majesty’s forces likely to be useful to an enemy. Photostatic copies of scores of letters intercepted at the Post Office were produced in court. Adams represented Dresden manufacturers and had received letters from a Hamburg exporter which had been intercepted at the Post Office, ostensibly concerning racing and enclosing money purporting to be placed on horses. Adams, in reply, sent books and other information, including a copy of infantry training, which, though it-could be purchased at bookstalls, was useful to an enemy. A photostatic copy of a code, also intercepted, was produced in court.