Loading...
The Seaforth News, 1958-11-13, Page 2Hula -Girl Clue To Missing Millions From island to island in the South Seas, a crew of young adventure -lovers is now sailing on one of the most enticing treasure hunts of modern times, They're looking for the buried loot of a lost U-boat, said to be an undersea treasure craft,, once laden with gold and jewels and precious works of art. And they're searching, too, for a hula -dancing white girl whom they think may be a vital clue to the missing millions that Hitler and other Nazi war crim- inals are believed to have stow- ed away before they faced their doom. Every Germain skipper trad- ing in the Pacific is now aware of the treasure hunt — and they're keenly alert for any white girl they may find living with natives, a teenager who may, in fact, be an orphan of the U-boat. The drama began in the days when Eerlin blazed in ruin and a group of high-level Nazis pre- pared for flight. In the basins of Bremen a flotilla of four U- boats waited, one laden with food and stores, two with space cleared for passengers, one stacked with treasure, While Hitler still screamed defiance at the world, brass- bound boxes c_ gold coin, jewels, paper currency and flattened art canvases were stowed aboard. The Allied victory, however, came too swiftly for the would- be fugitives. The submarines set sail—and faced disaster. Loaded with food, the U.904 was attacked and 'sunk by RAF bombers. With passengers aboard, the U.236 underwent a similar fate and, only recently, salvage divers recovered scraps of clothing from the wreck. The captain and crew of the third U-boat sailed the Atlantic safely and surrendered to the Argentine authorities. But what happenedto the U.435 and its fanatical commander, Captain Otto Helmut? Their fate is shrouded in mys- tery, but pieces of the jigsaw have been put together by men claiming to be survivors of the boat. They say that their submarine, separated from its stores ship, crept down the coasts of Brazil and the Argentine, making i1 - licit deals for food and water. Dealers supplying them were paid in gold. It has also been reported that a mysterious U-boat landed a passenger — believed to have been Martin Hermann, Hitler's missing deputy—at a port in Chile, after making an adven- turous voyage around the Horn, Was this the U,435? From this point, the runaway 1J -boat disappeared without trace—until last year. Then a Melbourne court convicted of theft an alleged Dutchman who claimed to have been one of the U-boat's crew. During the case, he told a remarkable story. Captain Helmut, he said, was making for sanctuary in Japan, but somewhere near the Mar- quesas Islands in the Pacific, he beard that Japan had surrend- ered. In civilian clothes, some of the ship's personnel were landed and ordered to scatter, posing es Dutch fugitives. Finally, the U-boat anchored by night off a group of islands, and the remaining skeleton crew were ordered to abandon ship. Through a shallow lagoon, they struggled ashore with the boxes of gold and jewels. With them went Irma Helmut, the captain's w EMPIRE LOOK - Model Carol Siler seems to wear the ulti- mate `empire. look" - candle- sticks on her hair at a London fashion show, Actually; she was standing in front of a chande- lier when the photo was taken. wife, who had joined them at Bremen. Fanatical to the last, Captain Helmut scuttled the submarine and went down with his ship, The castaway crew buried the treasure and were subsequently befriended by natives. Tlie widowed Irma Helmut later ha a baby daughter but died in childbirth. The baby was adopted by a native wo- man. The story was fascinating yet insubstantial. It would seem. scarcely positive or profitable. enough to justify the costs of e treasure -hunting expedition — except that at least one other member of the crew of the U.435 had not only supported the story, but claimed to have memorized the exact position of the treasure cache. He was Hans Wolfson, radio operator of the submarine, who turned up in Zurich seven years ago and told a similar amazing story to Max Stalder, an old friend who had settled in Switz- erland. At first, Stalder scarcely believed Wolfson's tale, With the added strangeness of a white child left behind on a Pacific island it sounded too amazing to be true. But when Wolfson was grave- ly injured in an industrial ac- cident and begged his friend to go to the Pacific to rescue the girl, it grew more credible. The man from the U-boat died, but not before he had made a map showing the location of the treasure. Max Stalder advertised in a newspaper's personal column, asking for adventurous -minded people to contact him. Step by step, the treasure -hunting ex- pedition was prepared. When the Melbourne "Dutch- man," accused of theft, confess- ed that he, too, had been a member of the U.435's crew, it merely added to their determin- ation to seek the treasure, Al- though he could not name the island where the baby had been handed over to natives his story tallied strangely with Wolfson's, To -day the leaders of the treasure -hunting expedition re- fuse to give any further hint of their secret. Some of them have sunk their life savings into the yacht Shalsa and its errand of rescue and riches. Ahead of them, however, there still waits a tough legal tangle, For if the treasure is found, fifty per cent. of its value could be claimed by the country to which the island belongs, And what is to be the future of the child of the treasure isle —a hula -dancing white girl who may now be an island queen? Koala Bears On Home Grounds Phillip Island is fourteen miles long from tip to tip, and about six miles wide. Shortly after landing on it we saw a notice on a tree by the roadside, warn- ing us not to molest a Koala. If we did, we would be fined any thing from fifty to two hundred pounds with three months' im- prisonment. A few miles further on, we ran under a long arch- way of manna gums and noticed that the same kind of trees stretched for some distance on either side of the road, "Let's stop and have a look round as we are in Koala coun- ry," i suggested, We left the car and looking above us among the weaving of the grey branches and the grey -green pointed leaves we saw a young Koala, cuddled in a fork, looking down on us with innocent unconcern. We lost our hearts to him at first sight, He gave us stare for stare and he didn't care a hang how many photographs we tried to take of him. Obviously he rea- lized that he had the best of it among the freedom of tree -tops, wind and sky. He pulled a leafy twig towards him. opened his mouth, showing his tiny pink tongue. We left him reluctantly. He was the first Koala we found for ourselves; after that we spent all our days on Phillip Island, Koala -hunting with Ko- daks, and as the grey -buff colour of their coats exactly matches that of the manna branches, he is not too easy to spot, so it is not surprising that some people who visit Phillip Island never find a Koala for themselves, but then, they miss too, thousands of seals on the Seal Rocks, pelicans fish- ing in Reid's Bight, Shearwater rookeries, scores of black swans and the Fairy Penguins who come in from the sea at Twilight after a long day's fishing and leave the surf and solemnly waddle up the shore to their sandy burrows in the dunes. Altogether we found over a score of Koalas of every age, each one outer and prettier than the last, but the sweetest of all, which we saw just after sun- down, was a little mother with her tiny baby clinging to her back. She, sat on one bough leaning against another, gently rocking In the south wind, whilst Alpha Centauri (the brighter of the two pointers of the Southern Cross), hung above one of her fluffy ears like it star-lanterns-- From. tar-lantern,—From "Lady of a Million Daffo- dils," by Dorothy Una Ratcliffe. HOT TOO SMOOTH, 15UT FAST — This bouncing baby car won't take any beauty prizes as it whips around a track at Brands, Hatch, England. It's a 1.G-500 Messerschmitt sports car, with a top speed of 90 m.p.h. and fuel consumption of 50 miles to the gallon. Has four wheels, too. (Other model Messerschmltts have only three.) 'TABLE 6 The world is full of good cooks and there is never a time when good cooking ideas do not result from conversations between those who love the art. In such a con- versation the other. day, a friend told me that the simplest and best ham sauce she ever served was a hurried -up one in which she combined orange marmalade with a little of the liquid from the ham, She heated it and, presto! There was a new zippy sauce, e e e On another occasion a friend and I were eating in a restau- rant and were served a salad consisting of spiced grapes in a lime -mint gelatin. It was almost tasteless, to our great disappoint- ment. "It needs lemon juice in the gelatin before it hardens," said my friend. She tasted it again, "And, if they would put a clove or two in the water they heat for the gelatin, then re- move the cloves before mixing, there would be that delicate flavor added. Those two simple tricks would lift this salad to something to remember." "Don't you get tired of seeing peas running around all over a plate?" another friend asked me One day at lunch. "Well, I have solved that problem," she con- tinued. "I rut fairly thick rings of green pepper and fence the peas in." 6 6 e Now that school lunches must be packed, and also now that Christmas Is just around the corner, we are featuring some recipes for cookies, writes Elea- nor Richey Johnston in The Christian Science Monitor. Almost everyone has her own favorite recipe for Chocolate Brownies, but Mrs. Marion M. Bonney sent one made with brown sugar which, she writes, is 'for those who . do not like chocolate," Brown Sugar 'Brownies 1 egg 1 eup brown sugar, packed 1 teaspoon vanilla ?/ cup sifted dour 1/2 teaspoon salt Y4 teaspoon soda 1 cup coarsely chopped nuts Mix together the egg, brown sugar and vanilla. Add flour, salt and soda. Mix; add chopped nuts, Pour in well -greased flat pan. Bake 18-20 minutes at 350°F. Cool in pan (should be soft when removed from oven) and cut into squares 6 e e "I have become interested in using whole wheat flour in ex- perimenting in the use of this flour in favorite recipes," writes Mrs. Joseph Beals, Jr. Whole Wheat Spicy Hermits 1 cup salad oil 1 cup brown sugar 1 egg 1 cup whole wheat flour Y4 cup wheat germ 5/4 eup dry mllk powder 1 teaspoon soda 1/ teaspoon cinnamon % teaspoon each, cloves, salt and nutmeg 2 tablespoons water ay cup each raisins and chopped walnuts or pecans Mix oil, sugar, and egg; beat well. Sift together the dry in- gredients and add, alternately, to oil mixture with the water. Stir in raisins and nuts. Drop 2 inches apart on lightly oiled cooky sheet. Bake at 375°F, for 10-12 minutes, Cool slightly be- fore taking from pan. Makes about 3 dozen. 4 * e "I have a recipe for molasses cookies that are a favorite of mine—and of my husband's too. They are easy to make and eco- nomical, " writes Mrs. Elizabeth Lovell. Molasses Cookies y<� cup butter 134 cups brown sugar, firmly packed 2 eggs 2 tablespoons molasses 36 cup walnuts or other nuts 1 cup currants or raisins 214 cups flour 1 teaspoon soda Cream butter and brown su- gar; beat in eggs, one at a time. Add molasses and mix well. Add nuts and raisins. Mix soda with flour and add to first mixture and mix well. Drop on greased cooky sheet by tablespoonsful, having each cooky the size of a walnut. Bake at 350° F. until brown. "These Christmas cookies may be made several weeks before the holidays and frozen; they are attractive if made with half the recipe decorated with red and half with green," writes Mrs. Helen Thomas. Holiday Pecan Cookies 1 pound shelled pecans 1 pound light brown sugar Dash salt A unbeaten egg whites Red and green maraschino cherries, drained and cut in half Grind pecans and sugar; sprinkle with dash of salt and mix well. Add unbeaten egg whites and keep mixing until a large ball forms. Lightly grease cooky tins, Preheat oven to 350° F, Place oven racks in center of oven. Use a teaspoon and form small balls of the dough, placing them about 1 inch apart on the tin. Place a half cherry on each ball. Bake exactly 10 minutes if weather is warm; 15 if weather is damp. Watch carefully—the bottoms should be light brown. These cookies harden a little as they cool. Remove at once from hot tin with a spatula onto clean towels, Makes about 6 dozen, Glave -Worms® G@ave Lights Up Cave On leaving Rotorua we doubled back on our tracks to visit the famous Waitomo. Caves, once de- scribed as the eighth wonder of the world, Their claim to lamb rests partly On their wonderfrs stalagmites and stalactites, and partly on their glow-worms. No words of mine can conjure up the fairylike beauty of these enchanting caves . , , the pillars looked ... delicate and often most wonderfully fluted. Little beads of moisture shone from them like suspended diamonds; and .as we made our way fur- ther urther into the earth through wind- ingpassages, under vaulted ca- thedral.like roofs and exquisitely domed ceilings, we saw many wonderful formations of the crys- talline rock, At the far end of a vast hall there rose the mass of a great organ, its pipes perfectly symmetrical stalactites; while another formation exactly re- sembled a huge blanket hanging in heavy folds. But the greatest wonder was still to come. We eventually reached the bank of a smooth and gently flowing underground river and there we clambered into a fiat -bottomed punt. We drifted . silently from cave to cave, our boatmen fending us off from the partially submerged rocks. Then a little way ahead we saw them; glow-worms by the hundred thousand, their silk- en threads hanging from the ca- vern ceiling, Our guide whis- pered that we must keep per- fectly quiet or else the glow- worms would hear us and put out their lights, I noticed sud- denly that even the oars were muffled. So in utter silence we drifted into Wonderland and floated through cave after cave, beneath a luminous canopy of living stars. They looked close- packed as the star -trail of the Milky Way, and by their dif- fused pale -bluish glow we could see the wonderful conformation of the caves themselves. It took us several hours to explore these wonderful caverns before we emerged quite sud- denly into the open, and found that it was night. — From "On Safari," by Ada Cherry Kear- ton. DRIVE WITH CARE SALLY'S S5UIEs "Don't look so worried, dear. I'm just helping to boors busi- ness." r "Gone away with me, 'Lucille" The Merry Olds, "the car with the backward look," is full- scale replica of 1901 Oldsmobile. All-weather top is optional. "COME AWAY WITH ME, LUCILLE" — Ever long for the old days, when automobiles were a novelty and when the term "horse - less carriage" described them perfectly? If so, you have lots of company, for three manufacturers have translated this nostalgia into quite respectable production schedules. Ameri- can Air Products Corp., is the builder of the Merry Olds. The Surrey, built by Dyer Products Co„ has approximately the same power and performance as the Olds. Slightly smaller than the others, the Rollsmobile le another replica of the 1901 Oldsmobile, built by the Starts Manufacturing Co. A)1 three are faithful reproductions of antique cars, except for .such new-fangled items as electric starters and sealed -beam head- lights. Distinctively flaring fenders proclaim the "all new" Surrey, modern version of a 1903 auto. Comes complete or in kit form. The .Rollsmobile, another "backward -looking" car, is two-thirds• size of original 1901 Olds, is unencumbered with revers* year.