SPY FEVER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 113, 16 May 1933, Page 7

SPY FEVER.

FRENCH EPIDEMIC. FRONTIER DEFENCES. Suspicion on Hundreds of Alsatians. SECRET UNDERGROUND TORTS. (United r.A.-ElcctricTelegraph—Copyright) (Received 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, May 15. The "Daily Express" Paris correspondent says tha't France is in the grip of spy fever, recalling Uie period of the Dreyfus case. Not a day passes without a suspect is arrested on a charge of spying for Germany or Italy. It is alleged that there, are hundreds of Alsatians in Germany's pay, and that foreign workers are coming to the fortified areas in Alsace in order to discover the secrets of the chain of underground forts stretching from the English Channel to the Vosges. These cost £300,000,000, and would enable a whole army corps to live 150 feet underground, fully provisioned, for a year. Impregnable Fortresses. The Paris correspondent of the "Daily Mail" says the traditional procession celebrated Joan of Are's Day. The patriots who took part were impressed by a statement made by the Prime Minister, M. Daladier, that the girdle of France's eastern fortresses and fortified lines of almost impassable design was nearly complete. M. Daladier said that war factories were busily producing armaments and equipment for these fortresses in preference to offensive armaments, so as to ensure the adequacy of the national defences in any eventuality.

The "Daily Herald" diplomatic correspondent says the French General Staff is perturbed by the information that Germany for the past few months has been manufacturing six-inch howitzers at the Rhine metal works, Dusseldorf, although the type is prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles. The Dusseldorf works are manned by picked Xa/.is and no others are allowed near the machine shops.

France is in process of constructing a trench system of defence, based on the experiences of the Great War, along her eastern frontier between the Rhine and Luxembourg. Behind this system are the former German fortresses of Strassburg, Metz and Thionville, and the first-class fortresses of Verdun, Toul, Epinal and Belfort.

"A huge belt of concrete is France's safeguard .against invasion," declared M. Paul Bernier, Under-Sccretary for Air, on October 7, 1932, after inspecting the new French frontier defence system, to be completed by 1034. "The fortifications are especially strong nlong the southeastern frontier," said M. Bernier. "From Briancon to Nice our chain of fortresses and 'pill boxes' will withstand any attack, even from the air."