ELABORATE NAZI ESPIONAGE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 264, 20 August 1936, Page 5

ELABORATE NAZI ESPIONAGE.

OH EVERY GERMAN IN SPAIN.

LOYALISTS SEIZE DOCUMENTS.

LONDON, August 18.

The Barcelona correspondent of the “News-Chronicle” says that from the apartment of Hans Hellemann, who fled when re'sentment developed against Fascists, the loyalists have acquired 10,000 documents signed by Nazi spies in Spain to their directors in Berlin. These show that the spies reported on every German in Spain, from ambassador to scullerymaid.

The Nazis, before their departure, removed certain vital files, but obviously a network of terrorist espionage covered the peninsula, rendering residence there almost impossible for non-Nazis, who, if they returned to Germany, incuri’ed the risk of Nazi ve'ngeance there. Prominent figures in the Nazi organisation were Arich Snaus, reorganiser of the pai’ty in Spain, Carl Cords, chief of the secret police, and Alfred Engling, chief of the Barcelona secret police, all of whom operated “uschla,” a secret judicial system. Some fought against its sentences of expulsion. Others, realising the futality of resistance, fatalistically accepted the decrees. The files disclosed reports on the Morocco and Tangier cable stations to Vigo and Horta, indicating keeh interest in the strategically important points. The summary of the “News-Chronicle” on the documents, covering the period from 1934 under the regime of Alter Zuchristian, the' then Nazi leader, occupies four columns, and indicates that the German consular body was entirely under the thumb of the local Nazis. It asserts that firms were compelled to dismiss nonNazis and replace them with Nazis. It give's instances of this.

TWENTY THOUSAND DEAD.

MATERIAL LOSS £125,000,000.

LONDON, August 19.

The “Daily Mail” estimates that the civil war in Spain has cost £125,000,000 already in "damage to trade, commerce, and property. The) newspaper assesses the casualties at 8000 killed in battle or shot after surrender or court-martial; 12,000 killed in street fighting; 14,000 wounded in battle or street fighting. Eight thousand soldiers and civilians are imprisoned and 10,000 are held as hostages, chiefly wealthy business men, priests and nuns.

LOSS TO BRITISH COAL TRADE.

TOTAL OF £600,000 GIVEN.

(Received This Day, 9.25 a.m.) LONDON, August 19,

The “Morning Post” says that the British coal trade, previously affected by losses on the French and Italian markets, has already lost trade in Spain valued at £IOO,OOO as a result of the civil war. Moreover, payments under the EnglishSpanish clearing system have ceased, though British coal exporters are owed £500,000.