F. E. N. GAUDIN.]

15

I.—Jα.

126. So that, as it stands to-day, you have been convicted of war treason, you have been released by the Government after serving seven months' imprisonment, with no admission >of any kind that you were not guilty of the offence of which you were convicted?— That is so. 127. What has been the effect upon your financial position ? —Well, after my imprisonment I received notice from my co-director in the business informing me that my services had been dispensed with. I have lost for good the salary I was getting, because it is not likely that I would ever go back again to him. 128. So that your source of income has been entirely cut off?— Absolutely. 129. And are you left with any other resources?— The only thing I have left is the shares in the business—it was a limited company. I have asked him to take over the shares, but he states he is unable to do so. 130. The shares are worth nothing because you cannot find a purchaser for them? —That is so. 131. The result is that you are left pretty well penniless?— That is so. 132. What has been the effect upon your friends and the public generally? —That is the reason I am making this petition—because people look at me askance, as if I were a common traitor; but I will never plead guilty. 133. And has your standing in some of the clubs in Auckland been affected?— Yes; some of the members of the Carlton Bowling Club, of which I am a member, have stated that if I come there to play they will pick up their bowls and walk off the green. And I have been asked to refrain from using the Commercial Travellers' Club, of which I am a member. 134. And some of the northern newspapers have, on the strength of your conviction, made very serious charges against you?— Yes. 135. And those newspapers, circulating widely ?—Have done me incalculable harm. 136. And you find that your friends and others with whom you have come in contact regard your conviction and your sentence of five years' imprisonment as conclusive proof that you have been guilty of treason, and that you are a common traitor? —That is the position. 137. And that is the position in which you find yourself now, in the estimate of your friends and the public generally?— Yes. 138. And unless you obtain from this Committee or some tribunal an acquittal from that charge you must continue under that stain ?—That is the case. Mr. Gollerton (representing Defence Department): Mr. Gaudin has made reference to the return of his commission by the Department. The Department wishes me to point out that even if his commission, had been cancelled the Department had no authority to retain his commission. 139. Mr. Payne.] Sir John Findlay has referred to a letter in which the taking of your own gold from Samoa was referred to as theft: is that said in so-many words in the letter?— Yes; it is from Colonel Logan, and these are his words: "It is my opinion that at the first public meeting, when the theft of gold was brought up, you went into committee to discuss the matter with the intention of concealing the theft." Sir John Findlay: Mr. McCallum wanted the matter investigated, and asked that the question regarding this gold should be taken in committee. Mr. Payne: That is a military committee? Sir John Findlay: Yes. Mr. Harris: Will you read the letter which that letter was a reply to? Sir John Findlay': It was a letter written by Mr. McCallum to Colonel Logan, which it might be as well to defer till Mr. McCallum is in the box. Colonel Logan characterized as a theft an act which was plainly the taking of a man's own gold. 140. Mr. Payne (to witness).] What was your impression of your action being characterized as a theft? —I could not understand it at all. T did not know what was in Colonel Logan's mind at all. 141. T understand you had done everything you possibly could to get your firm's value out of the country in ever y' way which was commercially legitimate?—l did. I tried my level best, 142. We have had the whole of the evidence, and you have nothing to add with regard to your approaching Colonel Logan {—There is only one thing I would like to mention in connection with the gold. When young Mr. Kronfeld visited Samoa Colonel Logan refused to allow him to land unless he would tell him the truth of the Gaudin affair for publication in the Auckland newspapers. 143. That was after your case?— Colonel Logan not only said that, but he wrote a letter to the firm of Kronfeld Limited to which he signed his name, in which, on the 16th April, four months after he confirmed the sentence, he asks for the truth of the Gaudin affair. A copy of that letter is before the Committee. 144. That is subsequent to your trial and conviction?— Yes. 145. Although yon admit having committed a technical offence, am T right in assuming as a member of the Committee that you only did so after seeing that all other methods had failed of getting your money out of Samoa? —-That is so. 146. Ts it within the bounds of possibility for any of those letters to have reached a German except through the officer in charge?— Not while.they were in my care. I took care to see they were delivered to the proper officer. 147. Would it be possible for any one during their internment to get letters through to Germany without going through the officer in charge?—l do not think so. It would be a sad state of affairs if they could. T feel certain the letters could not have got through to any German on Motuihi without being censored. 148. Mr. Fletcher.} Do yon know the reason why Colonel Logan stopped the payment of .■•old to the troops?— Simply to carry on the currency of the country with German- notes; and when he issued that Proclamation he ceased to distribute gold.