Captain Quits Polish Liner Batory On Which Eisler Escaped to Europe

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01443R000100280024-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 24, 1998
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: June 24, 1953
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2000/09/12 : CIA-RDP80RO1443R000100280024-6
captain Quits Polish Liner Batory
On Which Eisler Escaped to Europe
Shipper and Ship's Doctor
Ask British Authorities
to Give Them Asylum
By THOMAS P. RONAN
-Special to THE New Yo~c.K T;Mes, ._ . _ _.
LONDON,. June 23-, Capt. Jan
Cwiklinski, master of the Polish
liner Batory on which Gerhart
Eisler,, German-born Communist
leader, fled from the United States
in 1949, has left his ship and
sought asylum in Britain.
in a brief statement tonight the'
British Home Office_ confirmed re-
f ports that Captain `Cwiklinski and
asled for permission to remain in
when she left Hebburn on_ _
River Tyne in northeast England
Saturday after having been re-l
fitted. 1. 1 'the brief statement said , .tha.1*
Captain Cwiklinski ' had been
traced and detained, that he hac{
]sought 'permission to remain in,
i Britain and that his request was
under consideration. Of the doctor,
thei statement said that it could
only confirm that he had left the
ship.
Iowever, other sources reported
that the two men were b) held
in prison in or near Hehburn and
., .. ....,tea,
tap1J. Jan Cwiklinski
that they were being
by British immigration
gence officials. There
,Coatifncied on Page 14,
questioned
and intelli-
was little'
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24. 1953.
eyed by the treaty of extradition
CAPTAIN OF BATORY be the United Staates and
QUITS HIS VESSEL
doubt here that their request would
be granted.
The doctor, whose name was
said to be Taklaeter, was first re-
1 ported missing last Thursday. Lo-
L1 tam.
The 14,287-ton Batory was with-
drawn from the North Atlantic
run after a dock labor boycott and
other obstacles had made it dif-
ficult for her to operate from New.
York.
Captain Cwiklinski, 57 years old,
spent most of World War II in a'
German detention camp in the''
Netherlands. He had been sent to'
that country by the British Min-1
istry of War Transport to bring!
cal police authorities made a out a liner but arrived after the'
thorough search for him but they Germans had overrun the country.
have not disclosed when or where
they found him.
Among the places they visited
was a Polish club in nearby New-
castle where eight members of the
Batory crew who later received
political asylum in Britain stayed
after they had jumped ship two
years ago.
The absence of Captain Cwiklin-
ski was first noticed by Henry
Leslie, the pilot, who took the ship
out Nf the harbor. When he went
aboard the Batory last Thursday
to move her from her dock to a
ben'
,li in the river he inquired about
thei captain and was informed he
was in a hospital ashore. The first
officer was in. charge of the liner.
When the ship sailed Saturday
the pilot again inquired about Cap-
tain Cwiklinski and was told that
he was not on board. Mr. Leslie
said later that the vessel had been
taken out to sea by the chief of-
ficer and that 'the latter "obvious-
ly" was in command.
The liner was en route to Gdynia,
Poland, to complete her crew and
take on supplies.
.She was to leave there Saturday
for Copenhagen, Denmark, to take
aboard- 60Q, passengers, most of
them Danes, with some Swedes
and Norwegians for a fifteen-day
cruise to England, Scotland, Ire-
lannd and France.
Herr Eisler, former Comintern
agent stowed away on the Batory
in May, 1949, after he had skipped
the $23,500 bail in which he had
been held after his conviction for
perjury. When the ship put in at
Southampton he was carried off
after a struggle by Scotland Yard
policemen acting at the behest of
the United States State Depart-
ment.
Captain Wiklirfski and Polish
officials here had declared that
they would not give Herr Eisler up
but they changed their minds
when confronted with the choice of
lls~~uu~rr~~rendering him or delaying the
Approved For Release 2000/09/12: CIA-RDP80l rr1140 OPAN2 y 0"h
court, which ruled that the of-
f with which _w charged
iii e"'tted St was no orv-
Captain Degorated by Reds
LONDON, June 23 UPI-Jan
Cinilinski, captain of the Batory,
was decorated by Communist Po-
land for his part in the Eisler
escape episode. The Batory, pride
of Red Poland, is the ship Rusian
spy Valentine Gubitchev took home
from New York. Gubitchev, a.
Russian engineer-diplomat work-
ing at the United Nations, was
sentenced to fifteen years in prison
for espionage in the Judith Coplon,
case in New York, but his sen
tence was suspended on condition
that he leave the nUited Statds.
He departed March 20, 1950,
aboard the Batory.
The Batory, owned by the Polish
Government, was built in 1936. Her
home port is Gdynia, Poland. She',
was on the North Atlantic run
after World War II but was with-
drawn after New York authorites
refused to handle her cargo.
When the vessel returned to New
York June 4, 1949, for the first
time after Herr Eisler's escape, the
United States Government sent a
swarm of agents aboard. The crew
and 111`of the 683 passengers were
detained for an Ellis Island hear-
ing. Two days later an immigra-
tion official announced the crew
had. been "cleared of any implica-
tion in the flight of Eisler."
Captain Cwiklinski and his med-
ical officer are the third and fourth
Poles to make a dramatic switch
to the free world since last March.'
Lieut Franciszek Jarecki of the
Polish Air Force landed a,Russian
MIG jet fighter on the Danish Is-
land of Bornholm in the Baltic
Sea March 5. Eleven weeks later,'
another Polish air force officer, 1
Lieut. Zdzislaw Jazwenski, crash-'
landed a second MIG on Bornholm.
Both received asylum in the Weat.
 Approved For Release 2000/09/12 : CIA-RDP80RO1443R000100280024-6
I~IIIlIIIIIJIIIIIIIIIIl111111111111l11111111111111111111111lIIIiIlllllt~lilIIIIIIIIIINIIh
F
JAN CWIKLINSKI-yesterday.
FEAR MADE HIM
A FUGITIVE
Express Staff Reporter JOHN KING
EAR. That was the reason Captain Jan Cwiklinski,
53-year-old skipper of the Polish liner Batory, walked
off his ship re-fitting at Hebburn-on-Tyne last week to
I returned to Poland after this
voyage.
My escape was
not planned. I had
to go, I would have
been arrested and
prosecuted.
M ? You
crime
seek sanctuary in Britain.
A warning stepped up his fear. It prompted him
to bundle his personal belongings in a leather grip
and impelled him to walk dawn the gangway without
a last fleeting glance of the 14,300-ton luxury ship
he had commanded for more than seven years.
Behind him, too, he left his wife Slawa, his 17-year-old
daughter, and nine-year-old son. They were at home in
Gdynia, waiting for the father who will never return
Yesterday Captain Jan-Is ,he is known among seafarers
from Gdynia to Gallipoli-told reporters of the warning and
the fear.
The gold-toothed smile he always wears vanished as
he spoke slowly : "I was warned what would happen when
ring.elean'
I i tow the Haas: -rm too ova an
THE CAPTAIN annln trap to a'Pnw nparc'
Xienispl?ed p u r g e s are
taking place throughout the
Polish Merchant Navy, Captain
Jan revealed.
"In the last two months there
and he explained : " I had no
part in it. I did not know he
was on board when I left New
York."
has been a spring-clean and 500
sailors have been discharged. All
of them served with the Allies
during the war.
f` A sailor is suddenly dis-
charged, he goes home and we
do not hear any more. That is
how it is."
Political officers ruled Polish
ships. They gave permission to
sailors .40 wished to go ashore.
11 What is it like behind the
Iron Curtain ? " That question
was answered simply: It has
not changed since Stalin's death.
It is still as harsh."
Captain Jan spoke little of his
family. He dtd not think he
would broadcast a message to
them for fear of reprisals.
Confiscated'
"All their belongings will be
confiscated and they will be
moved to some place more than
100 miles from the seaside
because of my action," he said.
He 'was the captain when the
Batory brought '.Communist
Gerhard Eisler out of America
- Captain Jan, now freed from
Brixton Jail after being granted
sanctuary, said of his plans :
"I have offers, one from Florida,
but first I want to stay here
.awhile.
I Chose Eli land because it
is the country of real freedom.
I. want to write a book and rest.
Wit: rest.,,
may not under-
stand, it is no
crime ,... I speak
English and have
contact with Eng-
lish and American
passengers."
Who warned
Captain Jan'? He
would not say more
than: "Another
person is involved.
I cannot tell you
whether he is in
the 'Batory ... you
know what that
means."
Unlike many
Polish sea captains
Captain Jan never
BATORY-The Polish liner that makes
headlines. . . . .. Trouble Ship" is one of
the names she has been given this side
of the Iron Curtain.
joined the Communist Party. He
was approached many times. " I
told them I was too old an apple
tree to grow pears," he said.
On board the Batory were
political officers, three of them,
the chief named Peter Szemiel
(say Sheemiel).
"They were spying all the
time. They had a net around
all, including me," said Captain
Jan. " When he gets back to
Poland I wish him all the best,"
he added with a grin.
The medical officer of the
Batory left the ship and sought
sanctuary in Britain two days
before the captain left. The
double escape was not planned,
said Captain Jan - "Dr.
Tackreiter left on his own. I
did not know anything until I
was told on board."
Approved For Release 2000/09/12 CIA-RDP80RO1443R000100280024-6