THE SEA DEVIL, SAILED ON!

Radio Record, 20 May 1938, Page 8

THE SEA DEVIL, SAILED ON!

Man Who Managed Felix von Luckner in New Zealand Tels Inside Story of His Tour Special To The "RECORD"

BY

A. R.

McELWAIN

T’ a cocktail party the often afternoon 1 overheard a guest declare: "Wanganui knew how to treat von Luckner, any way... They wouldn’t have a bar of him up there!" Well, it is true that, for an expression of prejudice against the ex-raider, Wanganui certainly dis-. tinguished itself, and the visit, from a_ lecture point of view, was a complete "flop." The peculiar thing, however, about the Wanganui visi+ was that, while one-half of the people held aloof, the other half fell over themselves .being hospitable-and those who know Wanganui realise how really hospitable if can be. The social side of the Count’s stay was more pleasant than it was in any other place on the tour: and, believe me, that’s saying something! Von Luckner would have needed at least a week in the town to get through the invitations showered nnon him

My real purpose in giving the Wanganui aspect of von Luckner’s tour pride of place is that, fundamentally, the divided attitude toward the visitor wag econpletely typieal of all other places ineluded in our itinerary. The "Sea Devil’s" tour began on the very day news of MTitler’s Austrian coup was announeed in screaming newspaper headlines and condemned vigourvusly by every newspaper in the country, With publie opinion so inflamed it seemed like deliberately courting disaster to proeeed,

WL Was achtiailly suggested to von Luckner that the tour should be caneelled. Replying that "he had faced obstacles all his life and was ready to face them again," the redoubtable sailor sailed straight into the faee of publie opinion. Few men in a similar position would have doue it. Hew many other German officers, distinguished during the War as daring and dangerous enemies of Great Britain and her Allies, and now adherents of the Nazi regime, could tour a British Dominion proudly recounting their exploits of 1914-1918-and get away with it? This is worth thinkng about. . . . In many respects the tour Was a personal triumph. Apart altogether from von Luckner’s sterling record as u kindly and courteous-as well as a bold and caleulatingfoc, he has an extraordinary personality and an’ amazing vapacity for making friends. Admittedly he is a born

actor, and in his make-up there is a measure of "blarney" born of many years of performing before admiring audiences. But he is essentially genuine, kind to a degree that is sometimes embarrassing. With his naval cap, his giant stature and his inevitable pipe, his broad smile and his studied, "By Joe!" he drew crowds wherever he went. At not one of his lectures was there a discordant note. In even the smallest towns it was #mpossible te get him away from teeming autograph-hunters. Marked Antagonism Me APART from that Wanganui experience, the German didn’t have it all his own way. There was marked antagonism, not So much to the visitor himself as to the Hitler and Nazism which, in the eyes of many, he personified. This animosity, while not openly demonstrated, simmered away behind the scenes and badly affected the financial side of the tour. At every town in which the Count spoke, acrimoni-

ous controversies cropped up. In many instances parochial and absurd arguments were advanced as to why von Luekner should be boycotted. Preposterous stories about his aetivities aS & spy were circulated. In one town prominent business man took me into a side street, made certain no one was within earshot and asked me to tell him -just him-as friend to friend, if the Count { really was a spy! *

T replied that he might be for all I knew, but if, on this rushed tour, playing one and two night "stands" iu mostly inland country towns, the Count wag managing to fit in a spot of spying on the side, he had my profound adiniration. It amused me to think of von Tuckuner, his great bulk heavily disguised, sneaking out of his hotel at four iu the morning to take a flashlight photograph of the Wanganui River, or sketching the majn street of Dargaville "in the interests of a foreign Power," as the Oppenheim lads love to pue it. Nor shall I forget the naivete of the gentleman who contended that this shrewdest of all war-time strategists had, as u spy, convicted himself out of his own mouth because the Count during his lectures invariably mentioned that he had a cinematographer on his yacht Seeteufel, and that he would take back to Germany with him views of various parts of New Zealand, (Continued on page 42).

HE day Count von Luckner, Nazi and exsee raider, began his lecture tour of New Zealand, Hitler seized Austrie. Public opinion was more roused against Germany then at any time since the Wer. But von Luckmer carried on with his tour and meade a success of it. How many men would haye cared to undertake the same job?

The Sea Devil".

| onmemeniihiasnenaliel "INSIDE STORY OF TOUR (Continued ‘from page 8.) URING the Count’s week in Wellington there went begging a real "human interest" story.. After over twenty years, there was a. reunion. between ‘Colonel Harcourt Turner and Count von Luckner. The real significance of that will be appreciated best by those who know the full -history of the Count’s celebrated eseape from Motuihi Island, Auckland, in: December, 1917, and its, repercussions. Colonel Harcourt Turner was commandant of Motuihi Island, and it was in his launch that von Luckner and his crew made their get-away.-in broad daylight, subsequently commandering the scow Moa, in which they reached the Kermadec Islands, where they were recaptured. Colonel Turner.wag courtmartialled and dismissed the army, a penalty that was regarded by. Many in official circles as far too severe. While in Auckland making arrangements for the tour, the Count asked me to do all I could, when I returned to Wellington, to see if Colonel Turner was still here, and if he would receive his onetime prisoner. Subsequently, Count and Colonel came together once more, at the Hotel St. George, where von Luckner was staying. -It was a frank and altogether friendly reunion, and I never saw the Count more genuinely glad to see anyone. Many times during the tour he was at pains to express the opinion that Colonel Turner’s administration was not responsible for making possible the famous escape. There were not enough guards on the island, declared von Luckner, and those there were were, for’ the most :part, inexperienced youths. He repeated this during some lectures, and added. that if ‘anybody was to blame it was the then Minister of Defence. THERE has been: much cominent on the’ attitude of returned :seldiers to the Count’s ‘recent yisit.-"In Auckland they gave yon Luckner a wonderful reception, and Major-General Sir George Richardson acted as "sponsor" for him during the whole: of his stay there. In’ Wellington, Colonel Cowles, president of the Wellington branch of the R.8.A., approved tentative plans for an official reception to .the Count by the Association, and Also agreed to introduce the visitor from the stage at his three lectures. But meantime the Austrian trouble broke, and, asa resuli, the executive of the R. Ss A. refused to do anything "officially" and Colonel Cowles, had, of course, to abide by that: _decision, Although this attitude wa adopted by the R.S.A, branches wherever the Count spoke, it left the re turned men free to do as they pleased ‘individually, and in all places they composed the majority of the audiences at the lectures, and of the: Count’s visitors, S is always the case with celébrities travelling through a country, the people. who sought introductions to the Count and Countess were of two distinct types, those who were genuinely interested in the visitors and, in particular, "with the Count’s record, and those who merely wished to gratify their egotism by hasking in a little ~"rellécted ~ piory. Returned soldiers

and sailors formed the bulk of the former, and there were, happily, few of the latter. The Count’s habit of falling in with the wishes of all who ap‘proached him caused many complications to his management. In one town, a& woman sought an interview. She arrived at the hotel and calmly announced that she had arranged to take the Count and Countess driving that morning, had fixed a luncheon engagement for them, and, so that’ they wouldn’t be lonely for the rest of the day, had planned something or other for the afternoon! All this gratuitous largesse from a perfect stranger! In another place a certain business man endeayoured to monopolise the Count from the moment he arrived until he left. He cornered him on the stage after his lecture, clung to him at the hotel, where Count and manager were frantically endeavouring to entertain several people who had been invited to supper, arrived at the hotel next morning with a crowd of friends, kept the Count in the bar -for over two hours, and then, just prior’to lunch time, took me aside and, waving to the bar, said that in his opinion, the Count should be kept away from ‘all that!" Last I heard of the gentleman, he was endeayouring to interest von Luckner in a suggestion that he should be in Auckland at the end of the Count’s tour so that von Luckner could "take him for a sail round the harbour in the yacht." a i RECALL, too, the day on which a well-meaning woman, bent on being seen by her less favoured friends with a real live countess, inveigled Countess yon Juuckner iuto the largest tearoom in the town, and then, after a welter of: introducing on all sides, attempted to take her direct from there to the popular lounge of the largest hotel in the place. When the Countess de‘"murred, the hostess insisted that no visitor to the town ever dreamed of leaving without setting eyes on this beautiful lounge. The Countess, to me (much later): "Lo her I say: Oh God! do I not see hotel lounges all the work] over... 0!" Then there was the ill-timed challenge by the Federation’ of Labour in ‘Wellington to the Count .to debate Nazism, and the subsequent report that a demonstration was to he staged at the Opera House. -.Police were posted for special’ duty-and nothing happened. There was the Ministerial ban preventing the Count from speaking over 228, which was carried -to the extreme of the station refusing to accept paid advertising for the local lectures, There was the stolen cap incident in Wawera, and the rather fatuous . editorial -efforts resultant upon a couple of papers taking literally the Count’s figure of speech to the effect that the officer who refnsed him permission to visit Ripa Island ‘had no heart." ar, HE Count has left New Zealand. Those of uS who were closest to him, never at any time gulled by the traits of showmanship in his personality, will remember him for his boyish enthusiasms, his love of life and adventure, his extraordinary vitality and his great good fellowship. And we will remember the charm of his flaxen Countess and always admire the brisk efficiency with which she managed the Count’s business affairs-and the Count: a