FURTHER EVIDENCE IN ESPIONAGE CASE

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21727, 9 March 1936, Page 9

FURTHER EVIDENCE IN ESPIONAGE CASE

DR. GOERTZ ADMITS FEAR OF GERMAN LAW

LONDON, March 6

Further evidence was given to-day by Dr. Herman Qoertz at the Old Bailey in answer to the tw° charges of espionage laid agam s f him. He is charged will) Risking a sketch plan, or note, of the Mansion Royal Ait’ Farce Station, calculated to pe useful to an enemy, and with conspiring with Marianne Emig, a ypiyag German wontan, to commit offences against the Official Secrets Act, 1920. The case was adjourned until to-morrow. Goertz said that he bed twQ brothers in the Germany army, His father-in-law was a retired viceadmiral, and his brother-in-law was in the German War Ministry, His literary trip to England he said, was financed by an actress, a connexion of.his by marriage, who lent him £SOO on his personal security- He took no papers in Germany nor the sketch he made of the Mansion aerodrome, which he left at his bungalow. He was surprised to notice publie roads crossing landing grounds, he said. This was an example of childish silliness in aerodrome building. Before buying an air force list he said he was a foreigner. They said “that is all right,” and offered him the “Air pilot.” He found nobody on the list who might have been his prisoner in war time and established no connexion with the English air officers. He wag arrested after his return to England from Germany to investigate historical data for a novel. Money Received He waa searched and notebooks were temporarily confiscated. As an aviator he had ideas about the aerial defence of England and Germany. Only an airman could appreciate what an Anglo-German aerial war would be like. He intended to write about these ideas. A portion qf his novel was in Marianne Emig’s diary. Thp remainder was destroyed, but the skeleton of the plot was in his brain. Qoertz, questioned about Colonel Dressier, his former leader, pointed out that this might make him say things dangerous to himself under German law. He would Rot try to defend himself if he thought he would subsequently be charged with high treason in Germany-

Questioned about the identity of the friend whom he visited in Berlin after calling on his brother-m----law at the War Ministry, Goerta replied: *T dare not answer. If ia impossible.” He admitted the receipt of £lO2 from Qermfmy on August so, though the normal remittance allowed was only 12s. Goertz’s diary showed that he Visited MildenhalJ, Duxford, Hatfield, and Martlesham, all of which had ’ aerodromes, and wrote down particulars of them. He was not astonished to find that there were no details of air force aerodrome buildings in the “Air Pilot.” All the information he gathered at Mansion and from the Air Force List had been destroyed. He marked what he thought were petrol stores on his plan.