Mandated Territory

How Mission Plane Escaped from Mandated Territory

A LETTER received in Sydney from New Guinea (says “Sydney Morn ing Herald” of September 25) stated that reports were current in aviation circles in the Mandated Territory that the Junkers aeroplane belonging to the German Catholic Mission, which escaped to Merauke (Dutch New Guinea) after the outbreak of histilities, could have been captured if authority to seize it had not been delayed.

The plane was piloted by Werner Garms, who, it was claimed, had ex pressed anti-British views. The other German who escaped in the machine was Paul Raber, mechanic to the Mission.

The letter stated that, after war be gan, two Germans took possession of the machine and flew in a haphazard way through the interior of the Mandated Territory.

The crews of transport planes operat ing in New Guinea reported to the Ad ministration the progress of the Mission plane from one inland aerodrome to an other.

An executive officer of one aviation company sought permission from the Ad ministration to send a machine out to seize the foreign plane and its crew.

Authority was not obtained, and the Ger man machine disappeared from the Terri tory.

Indignation was felt among residents in New Guinea that the machine should have been allowed to escape when it could quite easily have been captured, the letter added.

The engagement is announced of Miss Jean Harris, of Manly, N.S.W., to Mr.

“Wally” Coutts, of Salamaua, New Guinea.