WOMAN SPIES IN j FRANCE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2665, 10 January 1916, Page 3

WOMAN SPIES IN FRANCE

WHY THEY WERE SHOT Wireless reports from Germany, in discussing the Cavcll ease, have made, much of tho fact that- two German women have been executed in France since tlie present war began. A dispatch received from Mr. William Philip Sinims, Paris correspondent of the United Press, makes it clcar that there was absolutely no parallel between these incidents and the execution of the English nurse at Drussels. He saye"Although the French authorities decline to be drawn into any controversy with Germany over such questions, they have given me permission to examine the complete records of the Ottillie Voss and Marguerite- Schmitt espionage cases, with full authority to publish the facts. According to these records there was absolutely no similarity with the Cavell case, as the following shows:—

In Pay of Cermany. "On February 27 last secret service agents arrested at Bourges a woman calling herself Jeanne Bouvier. She was provided with papers bearing this name, but after being interrogated confessed that the papers were fraudulent, aad that her name really was Ottillie Voss. She was born in the Rhine Provinces, of German parentage. She was unmarried, aged 33. For seven years prior to the war she had lived in the Agen region of Bordeaux, where she had been giving lessons in German. At the outbreak of hostilities she returned to Germany. Being out of work, she accepted employment as a spy, whereupon she was sent to France with orders to visit Nicc, Montpellier, Marseilles, and Lyons, to report 011 important new troop formations, tho frequency of railway military, transports and direction of the same, the sanitary condition of the army, and the number of the wounded, also tho debarkation of troops aj various ports, especially tho black soldiers. She was likewise instructed particularly to report 011 the state of mind of the population in regard to the war. She confessed further that she had been given 400f. expenses money. "From February 3 to 11' she travelled as directed, then returned to Germany, where she -was given 160 marks as an expression of satisfaction with her work. On February 20 she returned to Franco 011 a similar mission, having been provided with 500 f. expense money. Two days after her arrest at Bourges she made a- full confession, and she was unanimously condemned to death by a council of war cn the charge of espionage under Articles 197, 206, and 269 of tho Code of Military Justice. On April '20 her application for retrial was rejected, and 011 May 1-1 her appeal to the Chief of the State for clemency was refused. She was therefore executed on May 16.

Reports Upon the Troops. "Marguerite Schmitt, aged 25, born at Thiancourt (France), of French nationality, was arrested at the railway station in Nancy as a suspect on February 17. She had travelled via Switzerland from Auoux, near Bricy, now occupied by the Germans. After a lengthy examination she confessed that the Germans had sent her to obtain information concerning the presence of. British troops, reported as being in the region of Nancy, also concerning divers regiments encamped between Bar le Due and St. Menehould.. A friend had put her into relations ivith the Germans. They had offered her money, which she at first refused, but later accepted 200 f. The Germans took her by automobile to the Swiss frontier. She asserted .that, although sent by . the Germans, she had not. intended to spy upon the French; it was her purpose to tell the Germans upon her return that sho had been held by the French as a suspect. Her presence at Nancy refuted this claim. In addition, there was found in her possession a book of questions to be asked, prepared by a Gorman officer. When tried before a council of war, to all questions she replied simply, 'I am sorry.' She was condemned to death on March 20 for espionage, under Articles 206 and 64 of the Code of Military Justice, and on March 22 .she was executed." The correspondent adds that from a high official source he obtained tho fol-' lowing statement: —"We refuse to allow Germany to draw us into a controversy which would merely serve her purpose of distracting attention from the point at_ issue. . There has never been anything similar to the Cavell case in France. France has never officially discussed the Cavell case, however, and lias never made any charges based upon it. _ Germany lierself made the details public by posting notices of the execution all over the walls of Brussels and Belgium generally for the moral effect it might have on the people, to show them what Germany would do if tlioy misbehaved. The public opinion of the world did the rest. Germany saw her blunder, and now seeks to cover it up."