WOMEN SPIES IN FRANCE

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 2, 4 January 1916, Page 2

WOMEN SPIES IN FRANCE

WHY THEY WERE SHOT.

Wireless reports from Germany, in discussing the C'avell case, have made much of the fact that two German women have been executed in France since the present war began. A despatch received from Mr. William Philip Simms, Paris correspondent of the United Press, makes it clear that there was absolutely no parallel between these incidents and the execution of the English nurse at Brussels. Ho says:—"Although the French authorities decline to' be drawn into any controversy with Germany over such questions, they have given me permission to examine the j complete records of the Ottillie Vossand 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 GERMANY. "On 27th February 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 papei;s. were fraudulent, and 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 Nice, Montpellier, Marseilles, and Lyons, to report on important new troop forma- | tions, the .frequency of railway military transports, and direction of the same, .the sanitary condition of the army, and- the number of the wounded, also the debarkation of troops at various ports, especially the black sol-' diers. She was likewise instructed particularly to report on the state of mind of the population in regard to the war. She confessed further that- she had been given 400f. expenses money.

From 3rd to 11th February she travelled as directed, then returned to Germany, where she was given 160 marks as an ' expression of satisfaction with her work. On 20th February she returned to France on a similar mission, having been provided with 500f. 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 on the charge of espionage under Articles 197, 206, and 269 of the Code of Military Justice. On 20th April her applications for retrial was rejected, and on 14th May her appeal to the Chief of the State for clemency was refused. She was therefore executed on 16th May. REPORTS UPON THE TROOPS. "Marguerite Schmitt, aged 25, born at Thiauconrt' (France), of French nationality, was arrested at the railway station in Nancy as" a suspect on 17th February. She had travelled via Switzerland from Anoux, near Briey, 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 leDue and St Menehould. A friend had put her into relations with, the Germans. They had offered her money, which she at first refused, but later accepted 200f. The Germans took her by automobile to the Swiss frontier. She asserted that, although sent by tho Germans, she iiad not intended to spy upon. the French; it was her purpose to tell the Germans upon her return that she 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 German officer. When tried before a council of war, to all questions she replied simply, 'I am sorry.' She was condemned to death on 20th March for espionage, under Articles 206 and 64 of the Code of" Military Jusfice, and on 22nd March she was executed.",

The correspondent adds that from a high official source he obtained the following 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, how;ever, and has never made any charges based upon it. Germany herself made the details public byposting 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 they misbehaved. The public opinion of the world did the rest. Germany saw her blunder, and now seeks to cover it up."