SPY’S DEATH.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 310, 11 October 1943, Page 4

SPY’S DEATH.

TREBITSCH LINCOLN’S CAREER NEW /YORK, Oct. 9. The .Tokio radio reports that Ignatius Trebitsch Lincoln, professional spy and Buddhist monk, died in a Shanghai hospital after an operation. Curate, secretary to a philanthropist, and a Liberal member of Parliament in England before the Great War, Trebitscli Lincoln became notorious for liis attempts to secure important British naval secrets. A Hungarian JeAV by birth, lie Avas a censor of Rumanian and Hungarian correspondence, and then attempted to obtain a position in the counter-espionage section at the War Office in order to work for Germany. Lincoln approached Mr Churchill Avho Avas then First Lord of the Admiralty, the Foreign Secretary (Sir Edward Grey), and the Home Secretary, but all without success. He then proposed to a high official at the War Office that part of the German High Seas Fleet should he lured into the North Sea and attacked by the British Fleet. His purpose was to obtain the battle positions of the British Fleet in order that part of it should actually he trapped. The scheme Avas rejected, and Lincoln then Avent to Rotterdam to obtain information Avhich would enable him to gain the confidence of the British Secret Service. He returned with documents obtained from the German Consul, Avhich he hoped would bluff the War Office into employing him as a trusted agent. Lincoln claimed that he had the code by which the movements of the British lUeet Avere communicated to Germany, and also the code with which German spies in England communicated with Holland. The War Office promised Lincoln a position, but he Avas deliberately put. off. When lie attempted to see Mr Churchill in person to ask Avhy he Avas not employed, he Avas shown into the Director of Naval Intelligence (Admiral Sir Reginald Hall). He was allowed to leave, but a Avatch was kept, on iris movements. However, he managed to get aAvay to the United States, Avhere he immediately communicated with the German Secret Service and gave the information that he had gained when in touch with the War Office. He Avas able to give the Germans a fairly accurate description of the mobilisation of Kitchener’s Army.