KIDNAPPED BRITONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 November 1939, Page 5

KIDNAPPED BRITONS

ON THEIR WAY TO RECEIVE PEACE PROPOSALS — COMING SOLELY FROM GERMAN SIDE. COMMENT ON SEMI-OFFICIAL STATEMENT. Commenting on the incident on the Dutch-German frontier, in which, it is reported, agents of the Gestapo raided a Dutch car and kidnapped two British subjects, a semi-official statement issued at The Hague states, according to a radio report, that in the car next to the driver were two Englishmen who produced authority that they had permission to get into touch with the Germans in connection with peace negotiations. They were accompanied by a Dutch officer to supervise them in the interests of Dutch neutrality. It is stated in London that this statement may give rise to some misunderstanding. The British subjects weregoing to receive peace proposals which came solely from the German side. They did, in fact, pass this information on to their own authorities. They were proceeding to another place near the Dutch frontier to receive further German peace proposals, when they were kidnapped. It would be a new principle of international law to hold that to receive peace proposals in that way constituted any infringement of Netherlands neutrality. The Nazis claimed that two of the men seized were British Secret Service agents, Captain Stevens and Mr Bestand an attempt was made later to link them with the Munich bomb outrage.

ACTED AS POSTMEN NO AUTHORITY TO COMMIT GOVERNMENT. LONDON. November 24. The “Daily Mail” says ..Captain Stevens and Mr Best were acting with the knowledge of the British Government. They had been in communication with highly placed Germans for some time, but at no time did they convey British proposals nor commit the British Government in any course of action. They acted merely as “postmen.” NAZI ALLEGATION

SABOTAGING OF STEAMERS. LONDON, November 24. A Berlin official statement accuses the’British Secret Service of sabotaging German, Italian and Japanese steamers between. November, 1937, and November, 1938, sometimes destroying ships and crews. “The statement by Captain Stevens, captured at Venlo, plus our investigation, proves that the agent was a German migrant named Poetzsch, who. was sentenced at Copenhagen in July for espionage,” says the statement. “The first ship of British origin which was a victim of a similaract was the Athenia.” -

GESTAPO SCHEMES ELSER TAKEN FROM PRISON CAMP. SHORTLY BEFORE MUNICH EXPLOSION. (Received This Day, 10.45 a.m.) LONDON, November 24. Reuter reports from the Ruman-ian-German frontier that it is learned from a high Nazi source that Georg Elser, accused by the Gestapo of responsibility for the Munich beer hall explosion, was an inmate of Dachau until the week before the explosion. Prison guards ' took him and also Karl Buchholz, who it is expected will be mentioned during the prosecution, to the Swiss frontier. There they were arrested and denounced as the instigators of the explosion plot. The Amsterdam correspondent of the Associated Press o’f Great Britain says a Dutch intelligence officer named Hetvolk and Lieutenant Klop were killed when Mr Best and Captain Stevens were arrested. Lieutenant Klop accompanied the Britons in the interests of Dutch neutrality.

FACTS DISCLOSED AUTHORITATIVE STATEMENT IN LONDON. OVERTURE FROM NAZI CIRCLES. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.2 a.m.) RUGBY. November 24. In connection with the information now current that the two British subjects who were kidnapped a fortnight ago by Gestapo agents in Dutch territory near the German frontier had gone there, accompanied by a Dutch official, for the purpose of meeting certain German emissaries, it can be authoritatively stated that the meeting had been arranged as a consequence of a suggestion which had reached London, and which was understood to emanate from important elements in Nazi ruling circles. These suggestions bore on the possibility of peace and were of a character to render obviously necessary some investigation of their bona fides. Captain Stevens and Mr Best were accordingly entrusted with the task, which, however delicate, was entirely proper and honourable. Tlie Dutch authorities were duly jnformed and raised no objection. The circumstances of the Gestapo plot to kidnap the two men in violation of Dutch neutrality are naturally obscure and nothing in (he involved allegations of secret service activities, sabotage and complicity in the Munich bomb outrage with which the Nazis have sought cover up their act of brigandage helps meantime to remove the obscurity. Several explanations are possible, but the tendency here is to assume that Herr Himmler's agents discovered what was afoot and had decided to prevent the communication of peace proposals from important quarters in Germany: The idea of pretending that the two victims of the kidnapping had ..any I connection with the Munich plot was probably an afterthought on the part jof the Gestapo. It is emphasised that I the mission entrusted to Captain Ste- | vens and Mr Best was solely that of receiving information or proposals, i They had no proposals or suggestions Ito transmit in return. The view of the incident taken by

the Dutch authorities would appear to be reflected in the comment of the Amsterdam “Telegraf,” which described it as a flagrant violation* of Dutch territory, pointing out that it was a well-organised attack on a Dutch car. on Dutch territory, by eight armed Germans, who “not only committed a serious violation of our sovereignty, but also a crime for which the Dutch law provides heavy penalties.”