Evening star., 1941-08-06
BY JAY ALLEN,

correspondent OF The Star and N. A. N. A.
NEW YORK, Aug 6.-Just at
noon on Sunday, July 20. lone
occupant of cell No 81 in the mill
tary prison in Dion, Occupied
France, was engaged in his usual
midday preparations to rob the Ger
mans of from two to three hours OF
the two months of his sentence that
remained for him to do.
He had stretched out and was
invoking Morpheus to aid in this
worthy task when the stone corri-
dors outside echoed to German boots.
This was a frequent occurrence
which almost never concerned Cell
81. But today was different A
KEY turned in the ponderous lock
and the cells occupant, furious at
the intrusion, suddenly heard him
self being told to prepare for instant
departure.
This order he executed with no
delay and less regret. And 80 min
utes later he found himself in a
German staff car speeding north
for Paris to be turned over to the
American consular party leaving
that night for Lisbon and for home.
Four Months and Seven Days.
Thus ended this correspondents
stay of four months and seven days
in German military prisons, stay
that. by standards of modern living,
was far from agreeable but that as
newspaper experience was very, very
interesting.
1t all began-this hiatus in my
existence as a free map-on March
13 at am. in the streets of Mont
chanin, a scraggly mining town
not far from LIE Creusot. the French
munitions manufacturing center
There, several miles from the So
called demarcation line that seals
off occupied France from what is
called free" France, was stopped
in the dark by German customs
guard.
He simply stepped out from be-
hind something. flashed on an elec-
trio lamp which he wore screwed
to his midriff and barked Pa
pers?"
I produced my papers. They
looked better than they really were.
But still the guard was not i'm
pressed. And he gave voice to the
low suspicion that I had just land
ed from the night train from Paris
and that I was surely trying to get
across the demarcation line into
free" France.
He was quite right. I did want
to cross-to cross back int othe un-
occupied zone, after nine days in
Paris without authorization. More
over, knew how to cross the line,
for I had done it with great sue
cess on March 3 en- route to Paris.
But I had not counted on being
stopped so far from the line.
Questioned Many Times.
So I was caught, and very much
caught as it turned out. In the IA
weeks to come I was to see the in
side of three jails. was to be ques-
toned, requestioned, cross and
counter questioned, once by the
Gestapo. who were tough and eff
cient; once by a judge advocate of
the court martial in LIE Creusot, who
was polite and clever: once by a
detective from Herr Himlers S. S.
,the Elite Guard with the deaths
head in the peak of his cap-he was
terrific-and once by a wholly i'm
plausible sleuth from the French
Surete Rationale.
In all l was subjected to "a
hours of interrogation. Arrested for
the very minor offense of crossing
the demarcation line without au-
thorization-for which the usual
penalty is two weeks imprisonment
Il found myself investigated and
questioned as possible spy and
finally. on April %, accused by the
S. S. and the French Surete of be-
ing a special agent of both Churchill
and Stain. Then it all simmered
down, and was finally, on June 27,
sentenced for the one thing of which
I was guilty the misdemeanor of
crossing the line illegally and OF
having tried to recroSs it.
I was sentenced to four months
Imprisonment, but two and half
months of the three and a half
that I had already served were not
counted. This was an all-time high
in the annals of the courts-martial
sitting on such cases. The explana-
ton is that somewhere along the
line, on evidence that my case was
not being handled on its merits,
the United States State Depart
ment had intervened and opened
negotiations for an exchange.
Heavy Sentence Ordered.
From what I was able to learn
from certain functionnaires of the
military tribunal for the region, the
judges had received orders to give
me as heavy a sentence as possible
so as to justify the exchange and,
in addition, if the exchange had not
yet been effected when my sentence
had been served, to hold me anyway
IN "schutzhaft" or preventive arrest.
In the months between March l3
and July 81 I was not only able to
lose 80 pounds (210 to 172), but I
was able to see, from behind my