SPY’S ROMANCE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 296, 27 September 1935, Page 5

SPY’S ROMANCE

CASE OF LYDIA OSWALD.

COURT-MARTIAL SCENES.

BREST, September 13.

“I swear I never sold secrets to a foreign Power, that Lieutenant Guignard did not believe I was a spy, and that Lieutenant die Forceville did not suspect that a foreign Power was paying me.” In those words, Lydia Oswald, her eyes filled with tears, answered her accusers to-day at Brest, before being sentenced by a naval court-martial to nine months’ imprisonment for espionage. She will be deported to Switzerland after serving a month of her sentence.

Lydia astutely appealed to the courtmartial officers for chivalry, saying that she certainly intended to use Guignard and de Forceville for her espionage work. “But they were so chivalrous, and such perfect gentlemen that I fell desperately in love with Lieutenant de Forceville, who begged me to marry him.

“Realising the treachery of betraying the man I loved, I resolved to terminate my espionage. I apologise to the officers for drawing them involuntarily into this affair.”

Jean de Forceville told tho Court that he had not believed 1 Lydia was a spy. “I sincerely thought she was joking. How could I have possibly believed her? She told so many untruths!”

Lydia smiled when her ex-sweetheart was acquitted. De Forceville wept when the captain of his ship told the Court that love bad blinded him, and said: “I preserve all mv esteem for him as an officer.”