SPY DRAMA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 1, 2 January 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

SPY DRAMA.

FATAL MARIE LOUISE. HIGH TREASON TRIAI* BRITON'S SON PAYS PRICE. In the background of yet another high treason drama enacted in Berlin recently, when the head of a young man of British origin fell under the erecutioner's axe, appears once more Marie Louise, who figured in the "officer in the tower" case. Question and' answer in the House oi Commons relating to the German refortification of Heligoland cost the heads of three men in all. The last of the three was Robert Wendell, the German-bom son of an English father and a Scots mother. Wendell was in the employment of a German firm responsible for carrying out part of the plans for the refortification of Heligoland and other German naval bases dismantled under the Versailles Treaty. The first intimation the German Government had that there had been a leakage somewhere regarding these plans was when in reply to questions in the House of Commons, British Ministers confirmed the rumours that refortification was yet another "fait accompli," and gave details that left no doubt that the closely guarded secret was in the possession of the British. The German Secret Service set to work at once to solve the mystery of the leakage, and three arrests followed. Two Beheaded. Two of the arrested men were beheaded, but the third had his life spared in return for information about those associated with him. The information he supplied pointed to Robert Wendell as the man who was still supplying information to the mys- i tery woman believed bf the Germans to ! be the brain behind the British agents operating on the Continent, but so far untraced. There was nothing more than suspicion against Wendell until Marie Louise, who figured so prominently in the case of Lieutenant Baillie Stewart the "Officer in the Tower," appeared on the scene to use her sex appeal in the hope of delivering the young man to his enemies.

The intervention of the notorious siren succeeded where other efforts had failed and after she had cast her spell over Wendell, the "vamp" introduced into his flat, of which she had the key, Secret Service agents who took copies of compromising documents. Wendell's arre st followed, but he denied everything. Behind Closed Doors. When the trial came off behind closed doors, however, he was confounded bv the appearance as principal witness against him of the woman for whose sex appeal he had fallen so completely. As in the other two cases the prosecution demanded the death penaltv but after it had been passea -Wendell was offered his life on condition that he disclosed the name of the English woman agent with whom he had been collaborating. The lives of the other two condemned men, arrested months before him, had been offered on the same terms, but like them Wendell refused to give any information. As in the other cases the authorities tried the ruse of sending his mother to plead with him ii. his cell to save his own life by revealing the woman's name. The mother refused as firmlv as the son to be a party to such a transaction, and now she is menaced with expulsion from Germany and loss of the pension she has because of the distinguished services of her husband to scientific research. Extraordinary efforts were made to conceal the details of the trial and the identity of the witnesses appearing against the accused man. but it can be revealed now for the first time that the real name of Marie Louise is Maria Louisa Raeckendorff, a native of Silesia aged about .30. Daughter of Distinguished German. The daughter of a distinguished German civil servant connected with a. family of ancient lineage, she has been employed in Secret Service work for Germany for at least ten vears. and it is stated that she has* undertaken missions to countries abroad, including Britain and France. As recently as March of last year she made an incursion ink) Fiance, and had a narrow 'escape from arrest. Several photographs of her in different disguises, and her finger-prints arc now in possession of the French authorities. In the dim light of the prison courtyard where the execution was carried out the other morning, Wendell was given one-last chance of saving his life by speaking. For answer he placed his head on the block and signed to the executioner to get on with his job. "It is useless making such a demand. Nothing will make me speak, - ' he said.