CAVELL'S BETRAYER

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 146, 22 June 1934, Page 5

CAVELL'S BETRAYER

■ COUNTESS REVEALED. A WOMAN'S CONFESSION. WOUNDED, SHE TURNED SPY. (By a Special Correspondent.) MILWAUKEE (Wis.), May 25. The Judas who betrayed Edith Cavell, shot by Germans as a spy in 1915, was a woman, not a man, according to a confession made by Countess Maria von Kallenbach to Ernst Stirn, Milwaukee economist and mountain climber. The confession was made when Mr. Stirn and his wife spent their honeymoon in the vicinity of Interlaken, climbing the alps. Since 1919 a man named George Gaston Quien has been in a French prison at Clairvaux, as the betrayer of the nurse. Recently he asked that his' case be retried. He has continually protested his innocence. I Brand Whitlock, former American Ambassador to Belgium, is one of the many who has doubted that Quien was the real betrayer of Miss Cavell. The story of Countess von Kallenbach, Mr. Stirn declares, has never before been made public. Mr. and Mrs. Stirn met the countess, a fascinating and beautiful woman, at their hotel at Interlaken. "The countess' confession I have no reason to doubt," Mr. Stirn says. "She was a woman of supreme egotism and attraction, and I do not believe she feared anything in the world. We met her through a German diplomat to China and his wife who were vacationing at Interlaken. ChiW Plays a Role. "The diplomat and his wife were estranged and finally went separate ways, the husband to Berlin and the wife to Monte Carlo. They had a small

daughter, who, left in the care of the wife, Was turned over to the countess for a few weeks while the child's mother went to the gambling resort. The two women were on terms of intimate friendship. "It jfgas through the little girl that we became closely acquainted with the countess. We were much drawn to the child because of her rather evident loneliness and the fact that she was a verylovely and talented girl. She could speak five languages, was a great mimic and a wonderful toe dancer. We wanted to adopt her. "One night the countess, who confessed she could outdrink any man, and apparently could, told us that she was the real betrayer of Edith Cavell, and that Quien is innocent. "This is the story in brief: The countess was a doctor at the University of Vienna before the war. When Avar broke out she went to the front. There she became friends with members of the Austrian general staff. She was terribly wounded during several battles and was shot through the back of the head, so that a metal plate had been inserted. Her kneecap at one time was shattered, and the roof of her mouth was partly artificial, due to wounds she had suffered. Becomes a German Spy. "She told me she had nearly 100 shrapnel in her body," Mr. Stirn says. "Coupled with all this, she had a violent hatred for the French, which is a good beginning for a spy. "She left medicine and went into the German secret service. Soon after she was sent to Paris for the express purpose of 'getting' Edith Cavell. The countess could speak French fluently as well as several other languages. She ingratiated herself into the nurse's eonidence and finally went to live with tier. She posed as a Frenchwoman who hated the Germans. Eventually she jnticed Edith to the point of being captured. "The countess said she witnessed the jxecution. She told me that Edith was placed near a stone fence on that morning of October 12, 1915, with a handkerchief tied over her eyes. Just before the final volley of shots, Edith, who had protested at the handkerchief, tore it >ff and cried, 'Vive la France!'"— (N.A.N.A.)