WOMAN SPY ON BOARD SHIP?

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 69, 14 December 1939, Page 8

WOMAN SPY ON BOARD SHIP?

Interned At Bombay

NEW ZEALAND MAN’S

STORY

Dominion Special Service.

DUNEDIN, December 13.

Passengers on board a ship recently bound from England to Australia through the Mediterranean experienced one of the incidental thrills of wartime life when it was reported that a spy had 'been found on hoard.

Though they never actually saw her, tor it was a woman spy, they heard sufficient to convince them that some person on board was suspected, and for some time the ship seethed even more than usual with rumours as to the identity and method of operation of the mysterious woman. This was the story told by Mr. W. G. Squire, Dunedin, who returned a few days ago after a nine months’ trip to the United Kingdom and the Continent. Mr. Squire, who received his information from a steward on board ship, was fully aware that many unfounded rumours would 'be abroad in a ship passing through the Mediterranean in wartime, but from what he was told it .seemed that there was some truth in this particular story. The voyage from England started off rather mysteriously in the first place, because, though they knew the ship was bound for Australia, passengers did. not know what route was to be followed. "I thought we would probably be coming by way of the Cape,” Mr. Squire said, "and I was, therefore, rather surprised when I saw Gibraltar come in sight. It was shortly after we left Gibraltar that it was suspected that there was a spy on board. "The story told to me by the steward was that a wireless report was received, apparently from a British warship in the vicinity, that a light was showing on board our ship. As this was strictly against Admiralty orders, an immediate search was made, and it was found that this woman had opened her porthole. How she did so I do not know, because they were all screwed down. She made the excuse that she did not know she was doing anything wrong, and had opened the port on account of the heat, but this by no means satisfied the authorities on board ship, who searched her cabin and warned, her against any further action of the kind.

“At Malta military officers came on board and subjected her cabin to a rigorous inspection, and at Bombay she was taken ashore and interned.”