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Nazis in Ngongotaha IN 1941, a certain Sydney Gordon Ross was released from Waikeria Prison after serving a sentence for impersonating a clergyman and dodgy dealings in the motor trade. While inside he had befriended a bent former Bobby from the United Kingdom and they had used their time behind bars to cook up quite a plan. So instead of going clean once he was free he took the train to Wellington where he managed to convince first the Minister of National Service Robert Semple and then Prime Minister Peter Fraser that Nazis had landed by submarine in the Bay of Plenty and were holed up in Ngongotaha while plotting the overthrow of the New Zealand government. They had chosen that location because their leader suffered from ill health, and Ngongotaha was well known as the ‘Sunny side of the hill’ so, well, it seemed entirely plausible. It was of course complete fabrication, but a stellar performance from Ross and a government spooked by the advancing Axis powers and similar scares across the Tasman saw a newly arrived carpet salesman from the UK – a Major Kenneth Folkes – appointed the head of a fledgling secret service and Ross given funds and carte blanche to help - ROSS AND REMMERS track down the fascist infiltrators. Ross ran with the ball, Folkes nearly took control of the country under an obscure law, and the whole ruse ran for weeks before some good old-fashioned policing in Rotorua led to a raid on the Nazis stronghold: it turned out to be occupied by a dry cleaner and three nurses. It would be tempting to say that you can’t make this stuff up, but Sydney Gordon Ross did just that. You can read the full story in Plenty 08, though the greatest mystery of what became known as The Folkes Affair is why it has never been made into a movie. - Andy Taylor
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