More Stories of

The Count

A STORY about Count von Luckner which is probably not well-known is that after he had been taken prisoner at Wakaya and put on the SS Amra he and his party were disarmed and given parole; he then realised how he had been bluffed and that the ship was not armed.

Meanwhile, the Captain on the bridge was trying to unload the Count’s revolver: failing, he sent for him, handed him the revolver and asked him to break it for him as he could not. The Count took the revolver, broke it and handed it and the bullets back to the Captain.

A similar story concerns the Count and his party after they had landed at Suva, and settled in a building which had been built by the Fijian Chiefs as a rest house.

A heavy guard was posted around it.

One day the Count was taking a walk in the grounds and came across a sentry. He went up to him, stood at attention and stared at him for a minute, then said: “That is a nice rifle you have. May I have a look at it?” “Yes sir,” said the sentry and handed it over.

The Count examined it very care fully remarking that it was indeed a good weapon and jokingly said as he handed it back; “I would sooner be at the butt-end.” He said good bye and walked straight to the guard-room and reported the sentry for not saluting him.

In World War I, Fiji sent a Con tingent to England, a native labour corps to France and trained another European Company as reinforce ments, so manpower was at a pretty low ebb.

Continuous rumors kept floating into Suva that another two boats containing Germans had landed on Viti Levu and were believed to have a rendezvous with the Count who was by this time confined in the Suva gaol.

These Germans were supposed to have been seen at different places and the Authorities were kept busy sending armed parties into the bush to find them. Failing, they thought it would be a good idea to form a kind of Home Defence Company and attached to it what was called a Veteran Corps, to be used as a kind of Guard—this was com manded by the late Sgt. Tommy Horne.

The Governor of the gaol, a Mr.

Dalton, became aware that some strange noises came from the prisoners’ cells at night and he was of the opinion that they were tick tacking some messages to someone on the Tamavua heights which overlooked the gaol.

One night the signals were so

distinct that be became alarmed and rang up Headquarters. The OC im mediately dispatched Sgt. Horne with a section of the Veteran Corps, to investigate. They took up position under the large breadfruit tree which was outside the wall of the gaol alongside the prisoners’ cells. They could hear the tick tacking distinctly and thought they could see something moving in trees Sgt. Horne challenged three times to come down. No reply; so he gave the command to fire. Two flying foxes dropped to the ground.

The enemy outside being disposed of, the Veterans entered the gaol to take possession of the alleged wireless set. As they approached the cell the mystery was solved—it was a carbide lighting plant working— BlßK.