Track of a Trophy

The bodies of thousands of Anzacs piled on the beach at Gallipoli have built a monument of fame to Australia's soldiers that cannot be destroyed. Australia's Navy, however, is young, small and very green. There is just one victory to which Australian bluejackets can point with pride. In November 1914 the high-stacked German commerce raider Emden, almost at the end of its fuel after a spectacular career among Allied shipping in the Far East, was cornered off the Cocos Islands by the Australian cruiser Sydney, beached and burned with a great loss of life among the Emden's crew. The Emden's gallant Captain Karl von Mueller was captured and idolized as a good sport by Australians. The Emden's ship's bell was salvaged to become the Commonwealth's greatest Naval trophy. It was Sydney's pride in particular, and in Sydney's War Museum it stayed until last April when Museum attendants, opening up for the day, discovered that some good-for-nothing dastard had stolen it.

From the Melbourne docks to the sheep farms of Walla Walla, Australia was searched. Australian detectives all summer long swarmed over foreign vessels, pried into every shipment leaving the country. Foreign police departments were asked to help. One by one reports came in. The bell was not in Tokyo, not in Canton, not in Shanghai, not in Hong Kong. Durban and Cape Town could not find it, nor could New Caledonia, Suva, Papeete, Singapore, Hawaii. Vancouver, Amsterdam and Liverpool were a blank and Manhattan Police Commissioner Bolan had no tidings.

Last week a mysterious telephone call reached a Sydney newspaper office. Reporters with lanterns, ropes and shovels piled into a car, dashed through the night the 500 miles to Melbourne. Trembling with excitement they reached the edge of a suburban city park, and following a hastily scrawled treasure map, began to dig. A shovel struck something hard. It was the Emden's bell.

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