DID YOU see that
long love letter featur-
ing me that appeared
10 days ago in the
North Shore News?
It’s humbling to be
the object of such
attention,

It was written by Jack
Chivo of West Vancouver,
who said, in effect, that I am
aliar and a phoney.
Especially with regard to my
wartime antics.

The headline over the
item was “Questions for
PoW Doug.” So here are the
answers from PoW Doug.

The core of Chivo’s dis-
taste for me is my Doubting
Thomas approach to the six
million figure in the “holc-
caust” story. So, being a
Jewish gent from Romania,
Chivo spends his time study-
ing my stars.

And he has a little doll
called Doug into which he
sticks pins every night before

going to bed.
' . Fair enough. But a tit
requires a tat.

With the Chivos, query-
ing their version of history is
a no-no. So when I raised my
eyebrows over the alleged
experiences of Donald Watts,
an Aussie who claims to have
been a stoker at. Auschwitz
(and much else that kept my
eyebrows elevated) I knew I
would soon be hearing from
little old Chivo.

_ Ifyou read my column of

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Sept. 4 (*Rambo rough and
ready”) you will see what was
involved in the Rambo thing.

It would take a page to
debunk all of Chivo’s drivel.
An important part of his
musings, though, is that I
could not have escaped from
the secret police headquar-
ters in Bucharest in 1943.
How does he know?
Because, he claims, he was a
prisoner there in the late
1950s and escaping from it
was impossible.

Fifty years on, my
wartime antics bore me.
Publisher Peer Speck has
often asked me to do a few
columns on them. I have
declined, with respect.
Having got them off my
chest 30 years ago in my
book 2.O.W. A Soldier’s Story
of His Ten Escapes From Nazi
Prison Camps, | regard them
as stale stuff.

But now I call my wit-
nesses,

Jerome Caminada was a
London Times correspondent
who, like me, had escaped
first from Germany and then
from Hungary.

And like me and my fel-
low escaper Ted Lancaster he
and his friend Johnnie
Johnson also landed up in
Romania, where they joined
us.

Jerry wrote a book, too:
My Purpose Holds, published
in 1952,

Interrogated at length in
Bucharest he wanted to
know why he had had to
answer. all those questions
again, he and Johnnie having
already been been gone over
with a small-tooth comb
when they first arrived in the
country.

“For the secret police,”
he was told. “You are now in
secret police headquarters.”
(Page 176).

We were in the same place

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and were eventually reunited
with him.

In his book he also
described our escape and our
recapture on the Danube, on
the border with Bulgaria.

My next witness is
Princess Catherine Caradja, a
wonderful Romanian lady
who worked with the Red
Cross and visited us in the
prison camp to which we
were sent later.

She was in the top eche-
lons of Romanian society but
skedaddled to the U.S, when
the communists took over.

Over 30 years ago I had
the extraordinary experience
of interviewing her on CBC
TY, and she stayed with us in
North Van.

The princess was on the
inside of all the events in
Bucharest and knew our
story in detail.

Before she died she too
wrote a book Princess
Catherine in which she had
this to say:

“Two Englishmen had
arrived in the camp (for
American fliers shot down
over Ploesti). They had
escaped from many prisons
across Europe. Douglas
Collins and Edward
Lancaster had made quite a
reputation even before they
escaped from the secret
police headquarters in
Bucharest. I knew that to try
to discourage these two
[from escaping] would be
futile.” (Page 133.)

She had guessed we were
on our way out again, see.
This time via a tunnel,

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ters in P.O.W. [ was the
youngest and am now the
only survivor, Jerry, Johnnie
and Ted have gone to that
big camp in the sky, where
they and the princess are
laughing and urging me on.

More on Wednesday,
Chivo. You asked for it and
I'm delivering.

— The North Shore News
believes strongly in freedom of
speech and the right of all
sides in a debate to be heard.
The columnists published in
the News present differing
points of view, but those views
are not necessarily those of the
newspaper itself.

Riveting review
from Mr. Chivo

Dear Editor:

I was mesmerized by Jack
Chivo’s critical review of
Doug Collins’ book POW
(Sept. 27 News). Can we
expect regular book reviews
by Mr. Chivo?

For starters,
T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars
of Wisdom? (This time take a

compass — and don’t forget |

to “brick” the camel.)
Michael Wood ‘
North Vancouver

how about .

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