WAR EPISODE RECALLED.

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19885, 14 May 1936, Page 8

WAR EPISODE RECALLED.

————~o————— SEIZURE OF THE MOA. VON LU-CKNER TO VISIT DOMINION. I (By Telegraph—Press Assnelatton.) AUCKLAND. Thursday. Count Felix von Luckner, whose wartime exploit in escaping from Motu~ ihl Island, Auckland, with other German prisoners of war and the seizure of the scow .\l'oa is well remembered. expects to visit Auckland at the end of the present year in his own yacht. In a letter to an Auckland resident the Count says. he often thinks of New Zealand where he spent six months as a prisoner of war and was treated in every way as a gentleman. Count van Lurkner, then a German naval oflicer, commanded the auxiliary sailing ship Seeadler. After capturingr and sinking a number of ships the Seeadler came to grief on a coral reef in the society group. \‘on Luckner and a few members of the crew sailed in a \\'haletboat to Cook Islands and Fiji and. exciting suspicion, were arrested at \\'akaya island and brought to Auckland and interned at .\lotuihi. Escape from Motulhl. In December, 1917. he seized a launch and captured the scow Moa off Mercury Island. and sailed for the Kermadec islands. The Mini was at Curstis Island \\'hen the irable steamer Iris, now the Recorder. which had been sent from Auckland, came up, and after a shot. was tired Luckner surrendered. ‘ At the conclusion of the war You iLuckner and his companions were sent shack to his own country.