ARRESTED IN FRANCE.

Auckland Star, Issue 291, 9 December 1925, Page 7

ARRESTED IN FRANCE.

ALLEGED ENGLISH SPIES. MADEMOJSEIXE KABCEILE. SECRETS OF AVIATION. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.)

PARIS, December 8. As a sequel to the arrest of Mareelle Monseil, an artists' model, the police also arrested three British subjects for alleged spying in connection with aviation. They also arrested Lionel Wiet, who had posed as a naval officer. The British who are under arrest are Mr. Phillips, a director of a wireless telegraphy ' company; Mr. William Fisher, an employee, and Mr. John Leather, an engineer. They admit they knew Mareelle, but they deny having spied. Mareelle made a full confession, in which she named two foreign agents for whom she said she was spying in connection with naval aviation secrets. The woman says she heard of Wiet's arrest when she was returning to Paris with secret instructions hidden in a curved tube inside her garter. Fearing disclosures, she emptied the tube, and also destroyed the papers which were concealed in her cloak. Her torn clothing confirms the. confession. ■ Mareelle is a French woman. She is described as a second Matahari (the actress-spy who was shot at Vincennes in the war). The authorities are secretive about the Power which was employing the woman, but they state that it was not Germany. The discovery was due to mere chance. Wiet had been arrested for attempting to defraud officers at the Versailles garrison, but during the magistrate's examination he chanced to mention Mareelle. The police immediately recognised the name as that of a woman who had visited many ports and aviation grounds. Mareelle denies that Wiet was her accomplice. She told the police she-was about to become a parachutist, in order to descend into the aviation camns at Versailles and Villa Coublay.—(A. and TST.Z. Cable.)