A great hoax
Syd Ross told an incredible lie, which was more incredibly believed in the mad paranoia of WWII. Tom Hunt reports.
Sydney Gordon Ross had unlimited power and money. The New Zealand navy, air force and army were at his disposal. He rose to the rank of Captain, survived being shot at, dug his own grave, and escaped from jail.
Sadly, the only part of his story based in truth was the latter – Ross was indeed a prison escapee, though not for very long.
It was March 1942, amid World War II and not long after the Japanese had bombed Darwin, Australia, where enemy spy rings had been uncovered, nzhistory.net.nz says.
But it was more than a year after his escape from jail – then surrender – that Ross’ remarkable hoax came to the public’s attention.
‘‘I will tell you why I escaped,’’ he told a court.
‘‘The story goes back about 18 months now, just after America had come into the war. New Zealand had very little equipment in the country and there was about £500,000 of Japanese money distributed throughout New Zealand.
‘‘I was ill at the time and was offered a position as a Japanese agent, but this got to the right quarters, the New Zealand Secret Service, so-called, and they practically went down on their bended knees asking me to work for them.’’
He went on to explain how he was given the rank of Captain and had unlimited power and money, ‘‘the navy, air force and army being placed at my disposal’’.
‘‘It sounds foolish here, I know, but it is correct,’’ ‘ he said, before explaining his first job was the ‘‘quislings’’, traitors who collaborate with an enemy force in their own country.
‘‘The first thing I discovered was that I could trust very few of my colleagues and the second was the rather big names in this thing, New Zealand’s untouchables.’’
He continued his fantasy world by claiming he spent two months in hospital after an attempt on his life and that he had been shot at in Christchurch.
‘‘It is surprising the number of sums of money offered to me to sell information or to keep silent, but I refused, as I was finished and had had enough ... Later an exceptionally large sum was offered to me, but I also refused to take it.’’
That tale was told in 1943, but its roots were a year earlier, when his hoax had been believed by the head of New Zealand intelligence.
Ross in March 1942 was recently out of jail, where it seems he had fallen under the influence of career scammer Charles Alfred Remmers, and set out on arguably the most elaborate hoax in New Zealand’s history.
On his release he told Government officials in Wellington that he had been approached by German agents about joining a sabotage cell, Te Ara says.
He claimed Nazi agents had not just arrived in New Zealand by submarine but were also living at Ngongotaha, a small settlement on the western bank of Lake Rotorua.
Remarkably – no doubt helped by wartime paranoia, a desperation for a newly formed Security Intelligence Bureau (SIB) to look like it was doing something, and Japanese bombs falling on Darwin – Major Kenneth Folkes swallowed the elaborate lie.
Folkes, a former carpet export executive from the English Midlands, had come to New Zealand to set up SIB and would soon be returning with his tail between his legs.
Te Ara notes that for three months, Ross told officials tales of plans to kidnap Prime Minister Peter Fraser and Cabinet members, as well as of plans to demolish ‘‘key targets’’ before a German invasion.
The director of the enemy operation was a man named Remmers, at Ngongotaha, he claimed.
The real Remmers – the one Ross had met in jail – was indeed there but for health reasons that would eventually take him to the grave, rather than New Zealand to its knees.
Ross became known as Captain Calder of the merchant marine.
His bizarre ruse lasted three months, during which he was given cash, a car and a taxpayerfunded suite at the Grand Hotel in Rotorua.
His eventual unravelling began in June 1942, when eagle-eyed Constable Jim Richardson recognised Calder from the Police Gazette as career criminal ‘‘Syd Ross’’.
It later turned out that Folkes – who, based on Ross’ information, had requested a detachment of soldiers to deal with an invasion near New Plymouth – had never even told the defence force of his socalled intelligence.
Prime Minister Fraser sent Folkes, disgraced, back to England while Ross added a further hoax to justify his earlier lies.
According to Te Ara, he dug a hole in the Mamaku forest, near Tauranga, cut his back on barbed wire, and staggered out claiming he had been tortured by Nazis and forced to dig his own grave but escaped.
His hoax was not successful but he was never charged – not for the hoax anyway.
Ross would end up in jail the following year for assuming a name, receiving stolen property and false pretences.
He escaped from Paparua Prison, near Christchurch, before handing himself in six hours later, relaying his remarkable lie, returning to prison and into New Zealand infamy.